HOLLAOAY 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

•0 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

MERIWETHER  LEWIS 

AND 

WILLIAM  CLARK 

BY 

WILLIAM  E.  LIGHTON 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 


PORTLAND,   OREGON 

THE  J.  K.  GILL  COMPANY 

1905 


COPYRIGHT,  IQOI,   BY  WILLIAM   R.  LIGHTON 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.  CHARACTERISTICS 1 

II.   THE  EXPEDITION 15 

III.  TERMS  OF  THE  COMMISSION        ...  25 

IV.  THE  START 34 

V.   WITH  THE  Sioux 51 

VI.  To  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI          .  69 

VII.  OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE       .        .  82 
VIII.  THE    LAST    STAGE    OF    THE    WESTWARD 

JOURNEY 93 

IX.  WINTER  ON  THE  COAST      ....  107 

X.   HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS  .        .  117 

XI.   RECROSSING  THE  DIVIDE    ....  134 

XII.  HOME 142 

XIII.  AFTER  LIFE  149 


LEWIS   AND  CLARK 


CHAPTER  I 

CHARACTERISTICS 

IN  the  years  1804,  1805,  and  1806,  two 
men  commanded  an  expedition  which  ex- 
plored the  wilderness  that  stretched  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Missouri  River  to  where 
the  Columbia  enters  the  Pacific,  and  dedi- 
cated to  civilization  a  new  empire.  Their 
names  were  Meriwether  Lewis  and  William 
Clark. 

As  a  rule,  one  who  tries  to  discover  and 
to  set  down  in  order  the  simple  signs  that 
spell  the  story  of  a  large  man's  life  is  con- 
fused by  a  chaos  of  data.  No  such  trouble 
arises  in  this  case.  There  is  great  poverty 
of  fact  and  circumstance  in  the  records  of 
the  private  lives  of  these  men ;  so  careless 
were  they  of  notoriety,  so  wholly  did  they 


2  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

merge  themselves  in  their  work.  Anything 
like  ostentation  was  foreign  to  their  taste, 
and  to  the  spirit  of  their  time,  which  took 
plain,  dutiful  heroism  as  a  matter  of  course. 
No  one  knows  any  "  characteristic  anec- 
dotes "  of  Meriwether  Lewis  ;  and  the  best 
stories  about  Clark  are  those  preserved  in 
the  tribal  histories  of  Western  Indians.  The 
separate  identity  of  the  two  men  is  practi- 
cally lost  to  all  except  the  careful  reader. 
Each  had  his  baptismal  name,  to  be  sure ; 
but  even  their  private  names  are  fused,  and 
they  are  best  known  to  us  under  the  joint 
style  of  Lewis  and  Clark.  In  effect  they 
were  one  and  indivisible.  For  evidence  of 
their  individuality  we  must  look  to  the  la- 
bors which  they  performed  in  common. 

When,  several  years  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  great  expedition,  the  manuscript  jour- 
nals were  being  prepared  for  publication, 
the  editor  could  not  find  sufficient  material 
out  of  which  to  make  a  memoir  of  Captain 
Lewis,  and  was  forced  to  appeal  to  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson for  aid;  for  Jefferson  had  been  an 
early  neighbor  and  friend  of  the  Lewis  fam- 


CHARACTERISTICS  3 

ily,  and  later,  on  becoming  President,  had 
made  the  lad  Meri wether  his  private  secre- 
tary, and  had  afterwards  appointed  him  to 
direct  the  exploration.  The  sketch  written 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  is,  like  most  of  his  papers, 
appreciative  and  vital.  It  is  to  this  docu- 
ment, dated  at  Monticello,  August  18, 1813, 
that  every  biographer  must  have  recourse :  — 
"  Meri  wether  Lewis,  late  governor  of 
Louisiana,  was  born  on  the  18th  of  August, 
1774,  near  the  town  of  Charlottesville,  in 
the  county  of  Albemarle,  in  Virginia,  of  one 
of  the  distinguished  families  of  that  State. 
John  Lewis,  one  of  his  father's  uncles,  was 
a  member  of  the  king's  council  before  the 
Kevolution.  Another  of  them,  Fielding 
Lewis,  married  a  sister  of  General  Wash- 
ington. His  father,  William  Lewis,  was  the 
youngest  of  five  sons  of  Colonel  Robert  Lewis 
of  Albemarle,  the  fourth  of  whom,  Charles, 
was  one  of  the  early  patriots  who  stepped 
forward  in  the  commencement  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  commanded  one  of  the  regiments 
first  raised  in  Virginia,  and  placed  on  conti- 
nental establishment.  .  .  .  Nicholas  Lewis, 


4  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

the  second  of  his  father's  brothers,  com- 
manded a  regiment  of  militia  in  the  success- 
ful expedition  of  1776  against  the  Cherokee 
Indians.  .  .  .  This  member  of  the  family 
of  the  Lewises,  whose  bravery  was  so  use- 
fully proved  on  this  occasion,  was  endeared 
to  all  who  knew  him  by  his  inflexible  probity, 
courteous  disposition,  benevolent  heart,  and 
engaging  modesty  and  manners.  He  was 
the  umpire  of  all  the  private  differences  of 
his  county,  —  selected  always  by  both  par- 
ties. He  was  also  the  guardian  of  Meri- 
wether  Lewis,  of  whom  we  are  now  to 
speak,  and  who  had  lost  his  father  at  an 
early  age. 

"  He  (Meriwether)  continued  some  years 
under  the  fostering  care  of  a  tender  mother, 
of  the  respectable  family  of  Meriwethers,  of 
the  same  county  ;  and  was  remarkable,  even 
in  infancy,  for  enterprise,  boldness,  and  dis- 
cretion. 

"  When  only  eight  years  of  age  he  habitu- 
ally went  out  in  the  dead  of  night,  alone 
with  his  dogs,  into  the  forest  to  hunt  the 
raccoon  and  opossum,  which,  seeking  their 


CHARACTERISTICS  5 

food  in  the  night,  can  then  only  be  taken. 
In  this  exercise,  no  season  or  circumstance 
could  obstruct  his  purpose  —  plunging 
through  the  winter's  snows  and  frozen 
streams  in  pursuit  of  his  object.  At  thir- 
teen he  was  put  to  the  Latin  school,  and 
continued  at  that  until  eighteen,  when  he 
was  returned  to  his  mother,  and  entered  on 
the  cares  of  his  farm ;  having,  as  well  as  a 
younger  brother,  been  left  by  his  father  with 
a  competency  for  all  the  correct  and  com- 
fortable purposes  of  temperate  life.  His 
talent  for  observation,  which  led  him  to  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  plants  and  ani- 
mals of  his  own  country,  would  have  distin- 
guished him  as  a  farmer  ;  but  at  the  age  of 
twenty,  yielding  to  the  ardor  of  youth  and  a 
passion  for  more  dazzling  pursuits,  he  en- 
gaged as  a  volunteer  in  the  body  of  militia 
which  was  called  out  by  General  Washing- 
ton, on  occasion  of  the  discontents  produced 
by  the  excise  taxes  in  the  western  parts  of 
the  United  States  [the  Whiskey  Eebellion]  ; 
and  from  that  station  he  was  removed  to  the 
regular  service  as  a  lieutenant  of  the  line. 


6  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

At  twenty-three  he  was  promoted  to  a  cap- 
taincy ;  and,  always  attracting  the  first  at- 
tention where  punctuality  and  fidelity  were 
requisite,  he  was  appointed  paymaster  to  his 
regiment." 

That  is  about  all  that  is  definitely  known 
of  Lewis's  family  and  early  life.  It  is  not 
much ;  but  it  suffices  to  show  that  he  came 
of  fine,  fearless  stock,  mettlesome  and  reli- 
ant, —  the  sort  of  stock  that  brings  forth 
men  of  action.  The  invertebrate  vanity  of 
blood  is  kept  out  of  this  story,  in  accord 
with  the  democratic  belief  of  the  time  that 
a  strong  man's  ancestors  are  what  he  him- 
self makes  them.  They  may  have  done 
their  part  well,  but  it  remains  for  him  to 
put  the  finishing  touches  to  their  reputation. 
Given  a  few  sturdy  souls,  quick  and  willing 
to  serve  in  time  of  need,  and  that  was 
enough  of  family  distinction.  Behavior, 
rather  than  pedigree,  made  the  Lewis  char- 
acter. 

When  Captain  Lewis  was  appointed  to 
command  the  expedition,  he  had  served  Mr. 
Jefferson  for  two  years  as  private  secretary. 


CHARACTERISTICS  7 

Concerning  his  fitness  for  public  duties,  Mr. 
Jefferson  wrote  :  — 

44 1  had  now  had  opportunities  of  knowing 
him  intimately.  Of  courage  undaunted ; 
possessing  a  firmness  and  perseverance  of 
purpose  which  nothing  but  impossibilities 
could  divert  from  its  direction  ;  careful  as  a 
father  of  those  committed  to  his  charge,  yet 
steady  in  the  maintenance  of  order  and  dis- 
cipline ;  intimate  with  the  Indian  character, 
customs,  and  principles;  habituated  to  the 
hunting  life  ;  guarded,  by  exact  observation 
of  the  vegetables  and  animals  of  his  own 
country,  against  losing  time  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  objects  already  possessed;  honest, 
disinterested,  liberal,  of  sound  understand- 
ing, and  a  fidelity  to  truth  so  scrupulous 
that  whatever  he  should  report  would  be  as 
certain  as  if  seen  by  ourselves  —  with  all 
these  qualifications,  as  if  selected  and  im- 
planted by  Nature  in  one  body  for  this  ex- 
press purpose,  I  could  have  no  hesitation  in 
confiding  the  enterprise  to  him.  To  fill  up 
the  measure  desired,  he  wanted  nothing  but 
a  greater  familiarity  with  the  technical  Ian- 


8  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

guage  of  the  natural  sciences,  and  readiness 
in  the  astronomical  observations  necessary 
for  the  geography  of  his  route.  To  acquire 
these,  he  repaired  immediately  to  Philadel- 
delphia,  and  placed  himself  under  the  tutor- 
age of  the  distinguished  professors  of  that 
place,  who,  with  a  zeal  and  emulation  en- 
kindled by  an  ardent  devotion  to  science, 
communicated  to  him  freely  the  information 
requisite  for  the  purposes  of  the  journey. 
While  attending  at  Lancaster  to  the  fabri- 
cation of  the  arms  with  which  he  chose  that 
his  men  should  be  provided,  he  had  the 
benefit  of  daily  communication  with  Mr. 
Andrew  Ellicott,  whose  experience  in  astro- 
nomical observation,  and  practice  of  it  in 
the  woods,  enabled  him  to  apprise  Captain 
Lewis  of  the  wants  and  difficulties  he  would 
encounter,  and  of  the  substitutes  and  re- 
sources afforded  by  a  woodland  and  unin- 
habited country." 

It  is  plain  that  this  astute  judge  of  men 
reposed  perfect  confidence  in  his  friend. 
From  January,  1803,  when  Congress  sanc- 
tioned the  undertaking,  until  May,  1804, 


CHARACTERISTICS  9 

when  the  party  set  out  from  St.  Louis,  the 
young  officer  had  full  charge  of  the  intricate 
and  difficult  details  of  preparation.  It  was 
he  who  superintended  the  building  of  boats 
and  the  making  of  arms,  accoutrements,  sci- 
entific apparatus,  and  all  equipment ;  and, 
what  was  of  more  importance,  he  selected 
the  men  who  were  to  form  his  command. 
That  was  a  nice  matter.  It  would  have 
been  worse  than  useless  to  lead  a  company 
of  fretful  dissenters.  The  expedition  was  to 
be  conducted  on  a  military  basis ;  but  it  was 
not  ordinary  field  service ;  it  was  a  mission 
for  picked  men.  Much  would  depend  upon 
each  man's  natural  aptitude  for  his  task; 
much  more  would  depend  upon  the  integrity 
of  the  corps  as  a  whole.  The  consummate 
wisdom  of  Lewis's  selection  of  his  aids 
shines  from  every  page  of  the  journals. 
None  of  the  men  seemed  to  need  instruc- 
tion in  the  cardinal  elements  of  conduct ; 
each  was  as  sensible  of  his  trust  as  Lewis 
himself.  It  was  in  this  spirit  of  the  subor- 
dinates, rather  than  in  the  absolute  authority 
of  the  captain,  that  success  was  to  lie. 


10  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

To  guard  against  untoward  accident,  that 
might  thwart  the  work,  Lewis  wished  to 
have  a  companion  in  command.  This  pleased 
Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  choice  fell  upon  Cap- 
tain William  Clark. 

William  Clark  was  the  ninth  of  a  family 
of  ten  children.  His  father  was  John  Clark, 
second,  who,  like  his  father  before  him,  was 
a  Virginian,  living  in  King  and  Queen 
County.  The  pioneering  spirit  was  strong 
in  the  family,  —  the  Wanderlust ,  that  keeps 
man's  nature  fluid  and  adaptable.  This  led 
John,  second,  to  remove  first  to  Albemarle 
County,  and  later  to  Caroline  County,  where 
William  was  born  on  August  1,  1770,  not 
far  from  the  birthplace  of  Meriwether 
Lewis. 

When  the  boy  was  about  fourteen  years 
of  age,  the  family  moved  once  more,  into  the 
dim  West,  settling  at  the  place  now  known 
as  Louisville,  in  Kentucky.  William's  elder 
brother,  George  Rogers  Clark,  had  preceded 
the  others,  and  had  built  the  first  fortifica- 
tion against  the  Indians  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio,  around  which  were  clustered  a  few  of 


CHARACTERISTICS  11 

the  rude  dwellings  of  the  frontiersmen. 
At  this  place,  amidst  the  crudest  conditions 
of  the  Kentucky  border,  the  lad  grew  to  ma- 
turity. That  was  not  an  orderly  life;  it 
was  rather  a  continuing  state  of  suspense, 
demanding  of  those  who  shared  in  it  con- 
stant hardihood  and  fortitude.  For  the 
right-minded  man,  however,  it  had  incalcu- 
lable value.  Many  of  the  strongest  ex- 
amples of  our  national  character  have  been 
men  who  owed  the  best  that  was  in  them  to 
the  apparently  unkindly  circumstances  of 
their  youth.  What  was  denied  to  Clark  in 
easy  opportunity  had  ample  compensation  in 
the  firmness  and  self-reliance  which  came 
from  mastering  difficulties. 

To  read  Clark's  letters  and  papers  is  to 
discover  that  his  education  in  the  politer 
branches  of  learning  was  as  primitive  as  the 
surroundings  of  his  home.  It  is  plain  that 
the  training  which  prepared  him  for  man- 
hood was  got  mostly  outside  the  schoolroom. 

Like  Lewis,  he  chose  a  military  career. 
When  he  was  but  eighteen  years  of  age,  he 
was  appointed  ensign  in  the  regular  army ; 


12  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

and  two  years  later  he  was  made  captain  of 
militia  in  the  town  of  Clarksville,  "in  the 
Territory  of  the  United  States  North  West 
of  the  Ohio  River."  In  1791  he  was  com- 
missioned as  a  lieutenant  of  infantry,  under 
Wayne,  and  served  afterward  as  adjutant 
and  quartermaster.  Ill  health  led  him  to 
resign  his  commission  in  the  army  in  1796. 

A  few  months  before  his  resignation  he 
first  became  acquainted  with  Meriwether 
Lewis,  who,  as  an  ensign,  was  put  under  his 
command.  Then  began  one  of  those  gener- 
ous and  enduring  friendships  that  are  all 
too  rare  amongst  men.  It  is  not  known  just 
what  their  private  relations  were  in  the 
mean  time ;  but  in  1803,  upon  Lewis's  ear- 
nest solicitation,  Captain  Clark  consented  to 
quit  his  retirement  upon  his  Kentucky  farm 
and  join  in  that  work  which  was  destined  to 
be  but  the  beginning  of  his  real  usefulness. 

He  comes  to  us  out  of  the  dark.  We 
must  forego  intimate  knowledge  of  his 
growth,  being  content  with  finding  him 
full-grown  and  ready.  No  doubt  his  service 
in  the  army,  where  he  was  associated  with 


CHARACTERISTICS  13 

men  of  ability,  had  helped  him  to  master 
many  details  of  engineering  craft,  which  he 
was  to  use  in  his  later  service.  But  this 
was  at  most  incidental ;  his  strength,  his 
power  to  serve,  was  native,  not  acquired. 

That  they  might  share  alike  in  all  partic- 
ulars of  rank  and  responsibility  in  the  expe- 
dition, it  was  understood  that  Lewis  would 
endeavor  to  procure  for  Clark  a  captain's 
commission.  Clark  wrote  to  Nicholas  Bid- 
die  (the  editor  of  the  journals)  in  1811 :  — 

"  On  these  conditions  I  agreed  to  under- 
take the  expedition  made  my  arrangements, 
and  set  out,  and  proceeded  on  with  Capt. 
Lewis  to  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri  where 
we  remained  the  winter  1803  made  every 
necessary  arrangement  to  set  out  early  in 
spring  1804  everything  arranged  I  waited 
with  some  anxiety  for  the  commission  which 
I  had  reason  to  expect  (Capt.  of  Indion- 
eers  [Engineers])  a  fiew  days  before  I  set 
out  I  received  a  Commission  of  2d  Lieuten- 
ant of  Artillerist,  my  feelings  on  this  occa- 
sion was  as  might  be  expected.  I  wished 
the  expedition  suckcess,  and  from  the  assur- 


14  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

ence  of  Capt.  Lewis  that  in  every  respect 
my  situation  command  &e.  &c.  should  be 
equal  to  his;  viewing  the  Commission  as 
mearly  calculated  to  authorise  punishment 
to  the  soldiers  if  necessary,  I  proceeded. 
No  difficuelty  took  place  on  our  rout  relative 
to  this  point.  ..." 

In  the  very  nature  of  things,  personal 
difficulty  of  a  petty  sort  could  not  arise. 
Official  rank  was  as  nothing  between  them. 
They  were  capable  and  loyal ;  the  morale 
of  their  party  was  ideal;  and  under  their 
guidance  was  wrought  out  what  has  been 
well  called  our  national  epic  of  exploration. 


CHAPTER  H 

THE   EXPEDITION 

FOB  almost  twenty  years  prior  to  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedi- 
tion, and  long  before  the  general  public  was 
more  than  passively  carious  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  Louisiana,  Jefferson  had  nourished 
the  plan  for  exploring  the  Louisiana  Terri- 
tory. In  the  memoir  above  referred  to, 
he  wrote:  — 

-  While  I  resided  in  Paris,  John  Led- 
yard,  of  Connecticut,  arrived  there,  wdl 
known  in  the  United  States  for  energy  of 
body  and  mind.  He  fayl  accompanied  Cap- 
tain Cook  on  his  voyage  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  distfngiiislMyl  himself  on  that 
voyage  by  his  intrepidity.  Being  of  a  roam- 
ing disposition,  he  was  now  panting  for 
some  new  enterprise.  His  immediate  object 
at  Paris  was  to  engage  a  mercantile  com- 
pany in  the  fur  trade  of  the 


16  LEWIS  AND  CLAKK 

of  America,  in  which,  however,  he  failed.  I 
then  proposed  to  him  to  go  by  land  to  Kam- 
chatka, cross  in  some  of  the  Russian  vessels 
to  Nootka  Sound,  fall  down  into  the  lati- 
tude of  the  Missouri,  and  penetrate  to  and 
through  that  to  the  United  States.  He 
eagerly  seized  the  idea,  and  only  asked  to  be 
assured  of  the  permission  of  the  Russian 
government." 

The  consent  of  the  Empress  of  Russia  was 
obtained,  together  with  an  assurance  of  pro- 
tection while  the  course  of  travel  lay  across 
her  territory ;  and  Ledyard  set  out.  While 
he  was  yet  two  hundred  miles  from  Kam- 
chatka, winter  overtook  him,  and  there  he 
was  forced  to  remain  through  many  months. 
In  the  spring,  as  he  was  preparing  to  go  on, 
he  was  put  under  arrest.  The  Empress,  ex- 
ercising the  inalienable  right  of  sovereign 
womanhood,  had  changed  her  mind.  The 
reason  for  this  change  is  not  apparent. 
There  may  have  been  no  reason  more  potent 
than  international  jealousy,  which  was  lively 
in  those  days.  At  any  rate,  Ledyard  was 
put  into  a  close  carriage  and  conveyed  to 


THE  EXPEDITION  17 

Poland,  traveling  day  and  night,  without 
once  stopping.  He  was  left  in  Poland  pen- 
niless and  broken  in  body  and  spirit,  and 
soon  afterward  died. 

Later,  in  1792,  Jefferson  proposed  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  that  a  sub- 
scription be  raised  to  engage  some  one  to  as- 
cend the  Missouri,  cross  the  mountains,  and 
descend  to  the  Pacific.  In  order  to  preclude 
alarm  to  the  Indians  or  to  other  nations,  it 
was  intended  that  this  expedition  should 
consist  of  only  two  persons.  Meriwether 
Lewis,  then  eighteen  years  of  age,  begged 
to  have  this  commission,  and  it  was  given 
him.  His  one  companion  was  to  be  a  French 
botanist,  Andre  Michaux.  The  journey 
was  actually  begun,  when  it  was  discovered 
that  Michaux  was  residing  in  the  United 
States  in  the  capacity  of  a  spy.  Once  again 
the  plan  was  deferred. 

"  In  1803,"  wrote  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  the 
act  for  establishing  trading  houses  with  the 
Indian  tribes  being  about  to  expire,  some 
modifications  of  it  were  recommended  to 
Congress  by  a  confidential  message  of  Janu- 


18  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

ary  18th,  and  an  extension  of  its  views  to 
the  Indians  of  the  Missouri.  In  order  to 
prepare  the  way,  the  message  proposed  the 
sending  an  exploring  party  to  trace  the  Mis- 
souri to  its  source,  to  cross  the  Highlands, 
and  follow  the  best  water  communication 
which  offered  itself  from  thence  to  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean.  Congress  approved  the  propo- 
sition, and  voted  a  sum  of  money  for  carry- 
ing it  into  execution.  Captain  Lewis,  who 
had  then  been  near  two  years  with  me  as 
private  secretary,  immediately  renewed  his 
solicitations  to  have  the  direction  of  the 
party." 

Naturally,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  strongly  in- 
clined to  intrust  this  work  to  his  friend 
Lewis.  Their  official  and  private  relations 
had  been  intimate  ;  Mr.  Jefferson  had  had 
ample  opportunities  for  testing  the  fibre  of 
the  young  man's  character  under  strain ;  be- 
sides, Lewis's  confidential  position  had  no 
doubt  made  him  acquainted  with  the  inner 
details  of  the  plan,  its  broader  significance, 
and  the  political  obstacles  to  be  overcome  in 
carrying  it  into  effect.  Aside  from  his 


THE  EXPEDITION  19 

temperamental  disposition  for  such  an  enter- 
prise, his  public  service  had  strengthened 
his  grasp  of  national  interests ;  enthusiasm 
for  adventure  had  been  supplemented  by 
maturity  of  judgment  in  affairs  of  state. 
Altogether,  a  better  man  for  the  place  could 
not  have  been  found. 

To  carry  out  the  work  of  the  organized 
expedition  would  consist  largely  in  surmount- 
ing physical  difficulties ;  but  to  organize  it 
and  get  it  fairly  started  demanded  consid- 
erable delicacy  of  diplomatic  contrivance. 
The  life  of  the  nation,  as  it  sought  to  ex- 
pand and  take  form,  was  beset  and  harassed, 
north,  south,  and  west,  by  international  com- 
plications growing  out  of  direct  contact  with 
unfriendly  neighbors.  In  that  day  the 
United  States  did  not  sustain  cordial  rela- 
tions with  any  of  the  strong  nations  of  the 
world.  The  internal  machinery  of  the  new 
government  was  not  yet  in  perfect  adjust- 
ment ;  domestic  crises  were  constantly  re- 
curring ;  permanence  of  democratic  forms 
and  methods  was  not  by  any  means  assured ; 
the  country  had  not  established  an  indispu- 


20  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

table  right  to  be  reckoned  with  in  matters 
of  international  concern.  Russia  alone,  of 
all  the  powers,  was  considered  as  friendly. 
Even  in  that  case,  however,  there  was  no- 
thing warmer  than  watchful  neutrality. 
Russian  and  American  interests  had  not  yet 
conflicted. 

The  British,  through  the  strong  trading 
companies  of  Canada,  were  hot  for  getting 
control  of  the  Indian  traffic  of  the  North- 
west—  indeed,  their  prestige  was  already 
quite  firmly  fixed,  and  they  were  on  their 
guard  against  any  semblance  of  encroach- 
ment upon  that  domain  of  activity.  This 
condition,  coupled  with  other  and  acuter 
differences,  made  it  highly  probable  that 
England  would  not  take  kindly  to  the  expe- 
dition, should  its  object  be  openly  avowed. 

Spanish  opposition  would  be  even  stronger. 
Spain  had  but  lately  surrendered  posses- 
sion of  the  Louisiana  Territory,  whence  her 
agents  had  for  a  long  time  derived  large 
revenues  from  the  Indian  trade,  after  the 
age-long  manner  she  has  pursued  in  dealing 
with  her  colonies  and  dependencies.  Spain 


THE  EXPEDITION  21 

still  held  the  Floridas,  practically  control- 
ling the  commerce  of  the  Gulf  and  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Mississippi ;  so  that,  while  the 
people  of  the  United  States  asserted  the 
right  of  depot  at  New  Orleans  and  the  fur- 
ther right  of  passage  of  the  river  throughout 
its  length,  their  enjoyment  of  these  rights 
was  precarious.  Further,  though  the  crown 
had  transferred  the  territory  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  its  subjects  had  not  quit  their 
efforts  for  supremacy  in  trade ;  their  influ- 
ence long  outlived  the  extinction  of  territorial 
rights.  Bitterly  hostile  to  the  growth  of 
American  ideas,  they  would  certainly  do 
what  they  could  to  oppose  the  expedition. 

It  was  with  France,  however,  that  our 
government  had  to  deal  directly.  In  1800 
Napoleon  had  acquired  title  to  Louisiana, 
trading  with  Spain,  giving  in  exchange  the 
little  kingdom  of  Etruria.  But  his  control 
of  the  territory  was  more  tacit  than  actual ; 
he  was  so  busily  engaged  at  home  that  he 
found  no  time  to  reduce  his  property  to 
possession;  his  dominion  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi was  never  more  than  potential.  War 


22  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

between  France  and  England  was  imminent. 
Napoleon  had  in  America  no  adequate  means 
for  defending  his  new  domain,  which  would 
therefore  be  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  British  at  once  upon  the  outbreak  of  war. 
He  was  growing  anxious  to  be  rid  of  the  load. 
Jefferson  thought  it  probable  that  the  terri- 
tory would  one  day  belong  to  the  United 
States,  —  indeed,  negotiations  were  pending 
for  the  transfer  when  the  "  confidential  com- 
munication "  to  Congress  was  written,  in  Jan- 
uary, 1803.  Although  the  outcome  was  still 
problematical,  Jefferson  considered  that  the 
proper  time  for  discovering  what  the  land 
held ;  and  this  was  the  primary  purpose  of 
the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition. 

For  all  of  these  reasons,  and  more,  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  cover  from  general  view 
the  real  character  of  the  enterprise.  The 
appropriation  by  Congress  was  made  for  the 
ostensible  and  innocent  purpose  of  "  extend- 
ing the  external  commerce  of  the  United 
States."  In  his  letter  to  Congress,  which 
was  for  a  long  time  kept  secret,  Mr.  Jefferson 
said  that  France  would  regard  this  as  in  the 


THE  EXPEDITION  23 

nature  of  a  "  literary  pursuit,"  and  that 
whatever  distrust  she  might  feel  would  be 
allayed.  But,  though  his  ulterior  purposes 
were  sought  to  be  concealed,  the  powers  of 
France  no  doubt  knew  well  enough  what 
was  in  the  wind. 

It  was  on  June  30, 1803,  that  Jefferson 
gave  to  Captain  Lewis  detailed  instructions 
for  the  conduct  of  his  work.  In  the  mean- 
time (on  April  30th),  treaties  had  been 
signed  at  Paris,  ceding  Louisiana  to  the 
United  States.  That  was  a  distinct  triumph 
for  American  statecraft.  On  the  one  hand 
were  ranged  Napoleon,  Talleyrand,  and  Mar- 
bois ;  on  the  other,  Jefferson,  Livingston, 
and  Monroe.  The  French  were  at  a  disad- 
vantage ;  their  position  was  that  of  holding 
perishable  goods,  which  must  be  sold  to  avoid 
catastrophe.  Napoleon  said,  not  without  rea- 
son, that  the  government  of  the  United  States 
availed  itself  of  his  distress  incident  to  the 
impending  struggle  with  England.  However 
that  may  be,  the  territory  changed  owners  for 
a  consideration  of  115,000,000. 

Formal   notification  of   the  transfer  was 


24  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

not  received  in  Washington  until  the  early 
part  of  July,  when  active  preparations  for 
the  exploration  were  being  made.  Its  re- 
ceipt did  not  alter  the  character  of  the  ex- 
pedition, though  many  of  the  international 
complications  were  dissipated.  Thereafter 
the  work  was  purely  domestic  in  most  of  its 
aspects. 


CHAPTER  III 

TERMS   OF  THE   COMMISSION 

ME.  JEFFERSON'S  instructions  to  the  young 
officer  showed  his  own  farsighted  earnest- 
ness. Had  he  who  received  them  been  any 
less  in  earnest,  the  task  assigned  to'  him 
must  have  seemed  appalling.  The  primary 
instruction  was  to  blaze  a  path,  more  than 
four  thousand  miles  long,  through  an  un- 
studied wilderness.  It  was  conceived  that 
this  could  best  be  done  by  following  the 
Missouri  to  its  head  waters,  crossing  "  the 
Highlands  "  to  the  navigable  waters  of  the 
Columbia,  and  going  down  that  river  to  the 
Pacific  ;  but  this  was  only  conjectural.  The 
map  in  the  hands  of  the  explorers,  the  only 
basis  for  a  preliminary  outline  of  their  route, 
was  drawn  partly  from  hearsay,  partly  from 
imagination  ;  it  showed  the  source  of  the 
Missouri  to  be  somewhere  in  Central  Cali- 
fornia ;  it  showed  nothing  of  the  mighty 


26  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

barrier  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  There 
was  one  thin,  uncertain  line  of  hills,  far  to 
the  west,  that  might  have  been  the  Sierra 
Nevadas  ;  further  than  that  there  was  no- 
thing but  a  broad  interior  plain,  seamed  with 
rivers.  Practically  nothing  was  known  of 
the  difficulties  that  would  be  encountered. 
White  men  had  ventured  for  a  little  way  up 
the  Missouri  in  earlier  years,  to  carry  on  a 
desultory  fur-trade  with  the  Indians  ;  but 
these  traders  had  been  mostly  happy-go- 
lucky  Frenchmen,  who  had  taken  but  little 
thought  for  the  morrow.  They  had  no  trust- 
worthy information  to  give  that  would  be  of 
service  to  scientific  travelers.  So  far  as  sure 
knowledge  of  it  was  concerned,  the  land  was 
virgin,  and  Lewis  and  Clark  were  to  be  its 
discoverers. 

They  were  directed  to  explore  it  in  de- 
tail. Observations  of  latitude  and  longitude 
were  to  be  made  at  all  points  of  particular 
interest.  The  native  nations  and  tribes  en- 
countered along  the  way  were  to  be  studied 
with  care,  and  record  preserved  of  their 
names  and  numbers  ;  the  extent  and  bound- 


TERMS  OF  THE  COMMISSION         27 

aries  of  their  possessions ;  their  relations 
with  other  tribes  and  nations ;  their  lan- 
guage, traditions,  and  monuments  ;  their  oc- 
cupations, implements,  food,  clothing,  and 
domestic  accommodations ;  their  diseases  and 
methods  of  cure ;  their  physical,  social, 
moral,  and  religious  peculiarities  and  cus- 
toms ;  their  ideas  and  practice  of  commerce, 
and  the  possibility  of  extending  among  them 
the  influences  of  civilization,  —  in  short, 
every  circumstance  was  to  be  noted  which 
might  render  future  relations  with  these  peo- 
ple intelligent.  Particular  attention  was  to 
be  given  to  the  state  of  feeling  toward  the 
whites,  in  those  tribes  which  had  had  expe- 
rience with  the  traders.  Should  the  expe- 
dition succeed  in  reaching  the  Pacific,  the 
conditions  of  trade  upon  the  coast  were  to 
form  a  subject  of  special  inquiry.  Along 
the  route  full  observations  were  directed  to 
be  made  concerning  the  face  of  the  country, 
-  the  contour  of  the  land ;  the  character 
and  course  of  streams,  their  suitability  as 
avenues  of  commerce,  and  the  means  of 
communication  between  them  ;  and  also  the 


28  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

points  best  adapted  to  the  establishment  of 
trading-stations  and  fortifications.  The  con- 
ditions of  agricultural  development  were  to 
be  noted  as  fully  as  might  be,  —  soil,  water- 
supply,  climate,  and  change  of  seasons ;  and 
also  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
vegetable,  animal,  and  mineral.  Nothing 
was  to  be  neglected,  knowledge  of  which 
might  contribute  to  the  success  or  security 
of  later  enterprise. 

"In  all  your  intercourse  with  the  na- 
tives," wrote  Mr.  Jefferson,  "  treat  them  in 
the  most  friendly  and  conciliatory  manner 
which  their  own  conduct  will  admit ;  allay 
all  jealousies  as  to  the  object  of  your  jour- 
ney ;  satisfy  them  of  its  innocence ;  make 
them  acquainted  with  the  position,  extent, 
character,  peaceable  and  commercial  disposi- 
tions of  the  United  States  ;  of  our  wish  to 
be  neighborly,  friendly,  and  useful  to  them, 
and  of  our  dispositions  to  a  commercial  in- 
tercourse with  them ;  confer  with  them  on 
the  points  most  convenient  as  mutual  empo- 
riums, and  the  articles  of  most  desirable  in- 
terchange for  them  and  us.  If  a  few  of 


TERMS  OF  THE  COMMISSION         29 

their  influential  chiefs,  within  practicable 
distance,  wish  to  visit  us,  arrange  such  a 
visit  with  them,  and  furnish  them  with  au- 
thority to  call  on  our  officers,  on  their  enter- 
ing the  United  States,  to  have  them  con- 
veyed to  this  place  at  the  public  expense. 
If  any  of  them  should  wish  to  have  some  of 
their  people  brought  up  with  us,  and  taught 
such  arts  as  may  be  useful  to  them,  we  will 
receive,  instruct,  and  take  care  of  them." 

As  it  could  not  be  foreseen  in  what  man- 
ner the  travelers  would  be  received  by  the 
Indians,  whether  with  hospitality  or  hostil- 
ity, Captain  Lewis  was  told  to  use  his  own 
discretion  as  to  persevering  with  the  enter- 
prise in  the  face  of  opposition  ;  and  he  was 
also  told  that  should  he  succeed  in  getting 
through  to  the  Pacific,  he  might  choose  his 
own  means  for  getting  back  again,  —  ship- 
ping by  way  of  Cape  Horn  or  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  if  chance  offered ;  or,  in  the 
absence  of  such  opportunity,  returning  over- 
land. A  precious  liberty,  truly,  when  read 
in  the  light  of  the  facts!  The  instructions 
concluded  with  this  frank  paragraph :  — 


30  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

"  As  you  will  be  without  money,  clothes, 
or  provisions,  you  must  endeavor  to  use  the 
credit  of  the  United  States  to  obtain  them ; 
for  which  purpose  open  letters  of  credit 
shall  be  furnished  you,  authorizing  you  to 
draw  on  the  executive  of  the  United  States, 
or  any  of  its  officers,  in  any  part  of  the 
world  in  which  drafts  can  be  disposed  of, 
and  to  apply  with  our  recommendations  to 
the  consuls,  agents,  merchants,  or  citizens  of 
any  nation  with  which  we  have  intercourse, 
assuring  them  in  our  name  that  any  aids 
they  may  furnish  you  shall  be  honorably  re- 
paid, and  on  demand." 

As  events  transpired,  that  paragraph  was 
almost  ironical.  A  letter  of  credit  directed 
to  the  Man  in  the  Moon  would  have  served 
quite  as  well. 

The  two  redoubtable  captains  were  to  be 
soldiers,  sailors,  explorers,  geographers,  eth- 
nologists, botanists,  geologists,  chemists,  di- 
plomats, missionaries,  financiers,  and  histori- 
ans ;  also  cooks,  tailors,  shoemakers,  hunters, 
trappers,  fishermen,  scouts,  woodcutters, 
boatbuilders,  carpenters,  priests,  and  doctors. 


TERMS  OF  THE  COMMISSION         31 

From  the  time  they  left  St.  Louis,  in  May, 
1804,  until  they  returned  to  that  place,  in 
September,  1806,  the  men  were  cut  off  from 
civilization  and  all  its  aids,  and  left  to  work 
out  their  own  salvation.  Not  for  one  mo- 
ment were  they  dismayed ;  not  in  a  single 
particular  did  they  fail  to  accomplish  what 
had  been  assigned  to  them. 

The  congressional  appropriation  for  the 
purposes  of  the  expedition  was  based  upon 
an  estimate  made  by  Captain  Lewis  himself, 
which  is  so  refreshing  as  to  deserve  literal 
quotation :  — 

Recapitulation  of  an  estimate  of  the  sum  neces- 
sary to  carry  into  effect  the  Missie 
Expedition 

Mathematical  Instruments $217 

Arms  and  accoutrements  extraordinary 81 

Camp  Ecquipage 255 

Medicine  and  packing , 55 

Means  of  transportation 430 

Indian  presents 696 

Provisions  extraordinary 224 

Materials  for  making  up  the  various  arti- 
cles into  portable  packs 55 


32  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

For  the  pay  of  hunters,  guides  and  inter- 
preters   300 

In  silver  coin,  to  defray  the  expences  of 
the  party  from  Nashville  to  the  last 
white  settlement  on  the  Missisourie  ....  100 

Contingencies 87 


Total $2500 

Eighty-seven  dollars  for  the  contingencies 
of  a  twenty-eight  months'  journey  of  discov- 
ery, more  than  eight  thousand  miles  in 
length,  with  a  company  of  forty-five  men, 
and  through  a  land  literally  unknown  ! 

Captain  Lewis  set  out  from  Washington 
in  July,  1803,  and  was  joined  by  Captain 
Clark  at  Louisville,  whence  they  proceeded 
to  the  rendezvous  on  the  Mississippi,  near 
St.  Louis.  They  intended  to  embark  upon 
their  course  in  the  autumn ;  but  several  de- 
lays occurred,  of  one  sort  and  another,  and 
the  party  was  not  assembled  until  December. 
The  officers  wished  to  establish  winter  quar- 
ters at  the  last  white  settlement  on  the  Mis- 
souri, a  few  miles  above  St.  Louis  ;  but  the 
Spanish  governor  of  the  territory  had  not 
yet  learned  of  the  change  in  ownership,  and 


TERMS  OF  THE  COMMISSION         33 

would  not  suffer  them  to  proceed.  This 
compelled  them  to  remain  in  the  lower  camp 
until  spring.  The  winter  months  were  not 
lost,  however ;  they  were  passed  in  drilling 
and  instructing  the  men  in  the  details  of  the 
work  before  them,  thus  greatly  increasing 
their  efficiency  and  no  doubt  obviating  de- 
lays at  later  times. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   STAKT 

As  it  was  first  organized,  the  party  con* 
sisted  of  twenty-nine  members,  —  the  two 
officers,  nine  young  Kentuckians,  fourteen 
soldiers  of  the  regular  army  who  had  volun- 
teered to  accompany  the  expedition,  two 
French  watermen,  an  interpreter  and  hunter, 
and  a  negro  servant  of  Captain  Clark.  At 
St.  Louis  there  were  sixteen  additional  re- 
cruits, —  an  Indian  hunter  and  interpreter, 
and  fifteen  boatmen,  who  were  to  go  as  far 
as  the  villages  of  the  Mandan  Nation.  This 
brought  the  total  to  forty-five. 

A  broadly  inclusive  statement  must  suf- 
fice to  characterize  the  non-commissioned 
men.  They  were  brave,  sturdy,  able ;  amen- 
able to  discipline,  yet  full  of  original  re- 
source ;  ideal  subordinates,  yet  almost  every 
one  fitted  by  nature  for  command,  if  occa- 
sion should  arise.  They  proved  themselves 


THE  START  35 

equal  to  all  emergencies.  At  least  five  of 
these  men  kept  journals,  and  no  better  in- 
dex to  their  character  need  be  asked  than 
that  afforded  by  the  manuscript  records. 
If  ever  there  was  temptation  to  color  and 
adorn  a  narrative  with  the  stuff  that  makes 
travelers'  tales  attractive,  it  was  here ;  yet 
in  none  of  the  journals  is  there  to  be  found 
a  departure  from  plain,  simple  truth-telling. 
Their  matter-of-fact  tone  would  render  them 
almost  commonplace,  if  the  reader  did  not 
take  pains  to  remember  what  it  all  meant. 
Nowhere  is  there  anything  like  posing  for 
effect ;  the  nearest  approach  to  it  is  in  the 
initial  entry  in  the  diary  of  that  excellent 
Irishman,  Private  Patrick  Gass,  —  and 
parts  of  this  have  been  branded  as  apocry- 
phal, the  interpolation  of  an  enthusiastic 
editor :  — 

"  On  Monday,  14  of  May,  1804,  we  left 
our  establishment  at  the  mouth  of  the  River 
du  Bois,  or  Wood  River,  a  small  river  which 
falls  into  the  Mississippi,  on  the  east  side,  a 
mile  below  the  Missouri,  and  having  crossed 
the  Mississippi  proceeded  up  the  Missouri 


36  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

on  our  intended  voyage  of  discovery,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Clarke.  Captain 
Lewis  was  to  join  us  in  two  or  three  days 
on  our  passage.  .  .  .  The  expedition  was 
embarked  on  board  a  batteau  and  two  peri- 
ogues.  The  day  was  showery,  and  in  the 
evening  we  encamped  on  the  north  bank,  six 
miles  up  the  river.  Here  we  had  leisure  to 
reflect  on  our  situation,  and  the  nature  of 
our  engagements  :  and  as  we  had  all  entered 
this  service  as  volunteers,  to  consider  how 
far  we  stood  pledged  for  the  success  of  an 
expedition  which  the  government  had  pro- 
jected ;  and  which  had  been  undertaken  for 
the  benefit  and  at  the  expence  of  the  Union : 
of  course  of  much  interest  and  high  expecta- 
tion. 

"  The  best  authenticated  accounts  in- 
formed us  that  we  were  to  pass  through  a 
country  possessed  by  numerous,  powerful, 
and  warlike  nations  of  savages,  of  gigantic 
stature,  fierce,  treacherous,  and  cruel ;  and 
particularly  hostile  to  white  men.  And 
fame  had  united  with  tradition  in  opposing 
mountains  to  our  course,  which  human  en* 


THE  START  37 

terprize  and  exertion  would  attempt  in  vain 
to  pass.  The  determined  and  resolute  char- 
acter, however,  of  the  corps,  and  the  confi- 
dence which  pervaded  all  ranks  dispelled 
every  emotion  of  fear  and  anxiety  for  the 
present ;  while  a  sense  of  duty,  and  of  the 
honor  which  would  attend  the  completion  of 
the  object  of  the  expedition  ;  a  wish  to  grat- 
ify the  expectations  of  the  government,  and 
of  our  fellow-citizens,  with  the  feelings  which 
novelty  and  discovery  invariably  inspire, 
seemed  to  insure  to  us  ample  support  in  our 
future  toils,  suffering,  and  danger." 

In  Captain  Clark's  journal  there  is  no- 
thing of  this  sort.  The  opening  entry  is  a 
bare  memorandum  of  latitude  and  longitude, 
a  note  as  to  the  appearance  of  the  river  banks, 
and  a  statement  of  the  number  of  miles  cov- 
ered during  the  day,  —  a  memorable  achieve- 
ment in  modesty. 

Of  the  boats  in  which  the  party  was  em- 
barked, the  batteau  was  a  keel-vessel  fifty- 
five  feet  in  length,  carrying  a  large  square 
sail,  and  manned  by  twenty-two  oars.  In 
the  bow  and  stern,  ten-foot  decks  formed 


38  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

forecastle  and  cabin ;  and  in  the  middle  part 
were  lockers,  whose  tops  could  be  raised  to 
form  a  line  of  breastworks  along  either  gun- 
wale, in  case  of  attack  from  Indians.  The 
"  periogues  "  were  open  boats,  manned  by  six 
and  seven  oars.  Besides  these  conveyances 
for  the  men  and  baggage,  horses  were  led 
along  the  banks  of  the  river,  to  be  used  by 
the  hunters  in  their  daily  occupations  and 
for  service  in  emergency.  The  officers  had 
observed  the  wise  rule  of  travelers,  and  had 
sought  to  simplify  their  equipment  to  the 
last  degree. 

The  name  of  Lower  Missouri  attached  to 
that  part  of  the  river  between  its  mouth  and 
the  entrance  of  the  Platte.  Over  so  much 
of  the  route  the  expedition  passed  quietly. 
A  few  notes  from  the  journals  will  suffice 
to  show  the  nature  of  the  daily  labors. 

May  16th  the  party  stopped  at  the  village 
of  St.  Charles,  a  typical  French  settlement 
of  the  frontier,  twenty-one  miles  above  St. 
Louis ;  and  under  that  date  occurs  this  ad- 
mirable note :  — 

"  The  inhabitants,  about  450  in  number, 


THE  START  39 

are  chiefly  descendants  from  the  French  of 
Canada.  In  their  manners  they  unite  all 
the  careless  gayety  and  amiable  hospitality 
of  the  best  times  of  France.  Yet,  like  most 
of  their  countrymen  in  America,  they  are 
but  little  qualified  for  the  rude  life  of  the 
frontier,  —  not  that  they  are  without  talent, 
for  they  possess  much  natural  genius  and 
vivacity ;  not  that  they  are  destitute  of  en- 
terprise, for  their  hunting  excursions  are 
long,  laborious,  and  hazardous ;  but  their 
exertions  are  all  desultory;  their  industry 
is  without  system  and  without  perseverance. 
The  surrounding  country,  therefore,  though 
rich,  is  not  generally  well  cultivated ;  the 
inhabitants  chiefly  subsist  by  hunting  and 
trade  with  the  Indians,  and  confine  their 
culture  to  gardening,  in  which  they  excel." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  juster  or 
more  accurate  characterization  of  the  French 
as  pioneers.  Although  in  the  early  days  of 
settlement  along  the  Mississippi  and  its  tribu- 
taries they  outnumbered  the  people  of  other 
nations,  they  made  no  deep  impression.  They 
got  along  admirably  while  they  were  sus- 


40  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

tained  by  the  tonic-stimulus  of  excitement 
and  variety;  but  when  that  was  removed, 
they  found  the  conquest  of  even  the  richest 
of  lands  too  dull  for  their  tastes.  Lacking 
stability  of  nature,  they  could  not  achieve 
solid  results  in  prosaic  labor.  They  did  not 
so  much  as  lay  a  foundation  for  the  serious 
builders  of  after  years. 

May  22d,  in  camp  on  Good  Man's  Kiver, 
the  party  made  its  first  trade  with  Indians. 
Some  Kickapoos  were  engaged  to  procure 
provisions ;  they  brought  in  four  deer,  and 
were  given  in  return  two  quarts  of  whiskey, 
which  they  considered  ample  requital. 

"  May  25th.  .  .  .  Stopped  for  the  night 
at  the  entrance  of  a  creek  on  the  north  side, 
called  by  the  French  La  Charette,  ten  miles 
from  our  last  camp,  and  a  little  above  a 
small  village  of  the  same  name.  It  consists 
of  seven  small  houses,  and  as  many  poor 
families,  who  have  fixed  themselves  here  for 
the  convenience  of  trade.  They  form  the 
last  establishment  of  whites  on  the  Mis- 
souri." 

La  Charette  was  one  of  the  earliest  colo- 


THE  START  41 

nies,  and  famous  as  the  far  western  home  of 
Daniel  Boone.  There  that  immortal  fron- 
tiersman passed  the  last  years  of  his  life,  in 
the  sweet  luxury  of  quiet  and  freedom ;  and 
there  he  died  in  the  year  1820. 

Throughout  those  first  weeks  the  journals 
breathe  content.  Every  man  was  abundantly 
pleased  with  his  work  and  his  lot ;  game  was 
plentiful,  in  great  variety ;  the  difficulties  to 
be  overcome  were  no  more  than  those  at- 
tending the  navigation  of  a  swift  and  turbu- 
lent river,  whose  erratic  channel  was  filled 
with  sand-bars  and  dead  timber.  The  travel- 
ers were  enjoying  a  typical  prairie  season  of 
the  lower  altitudes,  which  makes  an  ideal 
setting  for  outdoor  life.  Here  and  there 
they  came  in  contact  with  friendly  bands  of 
Indians  ;  occasionally  they  encountered  boats 
upon  the  river,  manned  by  traders,  who  were 
drifting  with  the  current  to  St.  Louis,  bear- 
ing the  plunder  of  a  season's  traffic.  Upon 
the  banks  of  the  stream  were  many  tokens 
of  the  inconstancy  of  purpose  of  the  border 
life,  —  abandoned  sites  of  Indian  villages 
and  deserted  fortifications  that  had  been 


42  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

erected  by  traders  to  serve  for  temporary 
convenience  and  protection.  Nowhere  was 
there  a  sign  of  the  American  interpretation 
of  the  word  "  enterprise." 

On  June  26th  they  reached  the  mouth  of 
the  Kansas  River,  now  marked  by  Kansas 
City.  There  they  camped  for  two  days ; 
there  they  fell  in  with  the  Kansas  Indians, 
with  whom  they  held  a  pacific  conference ; 
and  there  the  hunters  met  for  the  first  time 
with  buffalo.  Forty-three  days  had  been 
consumed  in  crossing  what  is  now  the  State 
of  Missouri. 

July  26th  camp  was  made  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Platte  River,  six  hundred  miles  from 
St.  Louis,  where  the  town  of  Plattsmouth, 
Neb.,  stands ;  and  that  date  marked  a  radical 
change  in  the  duties  and  conduct  of  the  ex- 
pedition. The  disposition  of  the  Indians  of 
the  Lower  Missouri  was  already  pretty  well 
known,  so  that  no  time  had  been  spent  in 
establishing  relations  with  them.  They  were 
still  mostly  unspoiled  savages,  to  be  sure; 
but  they  were  acquainted  with  the  appear- 
ance of  the  whites,  at  least,  and  their  bearing 


THE  START  43 

toward  traders  and  colonists  had  been  for  the 
most  part  decent.  But  the  situation  upon 
the  Upper  Missouri  was  altogether  different. 
Although  the  problem  might  not  be  defi- 
nitely stated,  because  many  of  its  factors 
were  unknown,  it  could  be  foreseen  that  a 
solution  would  tax  the  genius  of  civilization. 
The  dominant  nations  of  the  plains  Indians 
—  those  whose  numerical  strength  and  war- 
like character  made  them  feared  by  their 
neighbors  —  had  their  domain  above  the 
Platte.  The  Sioux  in  particular  had  a 
mighty  reputation,  established  by  treachery 
and  ferocity  in  war.  Their  history  recorded 
a  constant  succession  of  cruel  wars,  most  of 
which  had  had  no  justification  save  in  arro- 
gance and  bloody-mindedness.  They  did  not 
want  to  live  at  peace ;  for  peace  signified 
to  them  a  state  of  craven  inanition.  The 
mission  of  Lewis  and  Clark  was  directed 
pointedly  against  that  manner  of  behavior ; 
they  were  not  only  to  secure  themselves 
against  hostility,  but  were  also  to  endeavor 
to  reconcile  the  warring  tribes  and  nations 
to  one  another.  That  was  an  undertaking 
calling  for  a  high  degree  of  tact  and  courage. 


44  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

From  a  camp  a  few  miles  above  the  Platte, 
where  the  party  remained  for  several  days, 
messengers  were  sent  to  the  villages  of  the 
Pawnees  and  Otoes,  fifty  miles  to  the  west- 
ward, bearing  gifts,  with  an  invitation  to  a 
council.  Through  wars  and  other  disasters, 
the  Otoes  were  then  much  reduced  in  num- 
bers, as  in  almost  every  item  of  the  savage 
code  of  efficiency  and  independence.  In 
their  weakened  state  they  had  formed  an 
alliance  with  the  Pawnees,  —  a  primitive 
adaptation  of  the  idea  of  a  protectorate. 
The  Pawnees  had  considerable  strength,  and 
they  were  in  character  much  above  the  In- 
dian average,  living  in  permanent  villages, 
where  they  sustained  themselves  by  culti- 
vating cornfields  and  hunting  the  buffalo. 

After  carefully  reconnoitring  the  lower 
Platte  valley  and  the  surrounding*  country, 
the  expedition  passed  onward,  traveling 
slowly  to  allow  the  Indians  to  overtake 
them.  On  the  27th  they  passed  the  pre- 
sent site  of  Omaha ;  and  on  the  30th  en* 
camped  at  a  point  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  to 
the  north.  It  was  this  camp,  pitched  where 


THE  START  45 

the  village  of  Calhoun,  Neb.,  now  stands,  that 
received  the  name  of  Council  Bluff,  which 
was  later  appropriated  by  an  Iowa  town. 
Here,  on  August  2d,  appeared  a  small  band 
of  Otoes  and  Missouris,  with  a  Frenchman 
who  resided  among  them.  Presents  were  ex- 
changed, and  the  officers  requested  a  council 
upon  the  following  morning. 

"  August  3d.  This  morning  the  Indians, 
with  their  six  chiefs,  were  all  assembled 
under  an  awning  formed  with  the  mainsail, 
in  presence  of  all  our  party,  paraded  for  the 
occasion.  A  speech  was  then  made  announc- 
ing to  them  the  change  in  the  government, 
our  promise  of  protection,  and  advice  as  to 
their  future  conduct.  All  the  six  chiefs  re- 
plied to  our  speech,  each  in  his  turn,  accord- 
ing to  rank.  They  expressed  their  joy  at 
the  change  in  the  government ;  their  hopes 
that  we  would  recommend  them  to  their 
Great  Father  (the  President),  that  they 
might  obtain  trade  and  necessaries ;  they 
wanted  arms  as  well  for  hunting  as  for 
defense,  and  asked  our  mediations  between 
them  and  the  Mahas,  with  whom  they  are 


46  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

now  at  war.  We  promised  to  do  so,  and 
wished  some  of  them  to  accompany  us  to 
that  nation,  which  they  declined,  for  fear  of 
being  killed  by  them.  We  then  proceeded 
to  distribute  our  presents.  The  grand  chief 
of  the  nation  not  being  of  the  party,  we  sent 
him  a  flag,  a  medal,  and  some  ornaments  for 
clothing.  To  the  six  chiefs  who  were  pre- 
sent, we  gave  a  medal  of  the  second  grade 
to  one  Otoe  chief  and  one  Missouri  chief; 
a  medal  of  the  third  grade  to  two  inferior 
chiefs  of  each  nation  —  the  customary  mode 
of  recognizing  a  chief  being  to  place  a  medal 
round  his  neck,  which  is  considered  among 
his  tribe  as  a  proof  of  his  consideration 
abroad.  Each  of  these  medals  was  accom- 
panied by  a  present  of  paint,  garters,  and 
cloth  ornaments  of  dress ;  and  to  these  we 
added  a  canister  of  powder,  a  bottle  of 
whiskey,  and  a  few  presents  to  the  whole, 
which  appeared  to  make  them  perfectly  satis- 
fied. The  air-gun,  too,  was  fired,  and  aston- 
ished them  greatly.  .  .  ." 

This  was  the  first  important  conference 
with  the  natives.     If  it  was  not  rich  in  results, 


THE  START  47 

it  served  at  least  the  temporary  purpose  of 
putting  these  allied  tribes  in  a  good  humor  by 
satisfying  their  sense  of  their  own  dignity. 
Nothing  more  was  to  be  expected.  It  is  well 
to  say  outright,  as  a  commentary  upon  all 
meetings  such  as  this,  that  no  council  with 
Indians,  however  ceremonious  or  solemn,  has 
results  more  permanent  than  those  which 
attend  the  purely  diplomatic  relations  of 
civilized  nations. 

In  all  our  intercourse  with  the  Indians, 
from  the  very  beginning,  too  much  stress 
has  been  laid  upon  the  importance  and  the 
binding  obligation  of  formal  pow-wows.  We 
have  been  unduly  conscious  of  our  own 
cunning,  while  undervaluing  the  craft  that 
is  native  to  all  wild  peoples ;  we  have  too 
often  lost  sight  of  the  one  really  imperative 
element  in  any  compact  that  is  to  be  effec- 
tive and  enduring,  —  mutuality  of  honorable 
purpose.  Most  men,  whether  civilized  or 
savage,  can  appreciate  honest  motives  and 
behavior ;  and  so  can  they  detect  dishonest 
wiles  and  artifices.  Lewis  and  Clark  knew 
well  enough  what  was  before  them.  The  In- 


48  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

dians'  past  experience  with  the  light-minded 
French  and  the  evil-minded  Spanish  adven- 
turers of  the  border  had  left  a  deep  impres- 
sion; it  had  made  them  wary,  if  not  dis- 
trustful, of  white  men's  protestations.  This 
impression  was  not  to  be  removed  by  merely 
sitting  around  in  a  circle  and  making 
speeches ;  it  could  only  be  removed  by  long 
and  intimate  association  in  the  affairs  of 
actual  life.  If  the  whites  meant  well,  they 
would  do  well,  argued  the  Indians.  To  do 
well  was  a  matter  of  time.  The  most  that 
Lewis  and  Clark  hoped  for  was  to  establish 
peace  with  the  natives,  to  prepare  the  way 
for  confidence  and  trust.  Meanwhile  they 
knew  that  they  would  need  to  be  constantly 
upon  their  guard. 

On  August  19th  one  of  the  non-commis- 
sioned officers,  Sergeant  Charles  Floyd,  was 
taken  ill,  and  on  the  next  day  he  died.  This 
was  the  only  death  to  occur  in  the  party 
throughout  the  course  of  the  expedition. 

The  entries  in  Captain  Clark's  journals 
for  those  two  days  are  thoroughly  character- 
istic of  him :  — 


THE  START  49 

"  August  19.  ...  Serjeant  Floyd  is  taken 
verry  bad  all  at  once  with  a  Biliose  Chorlick 
we  attempt  to  reliev  him  without  success  as 
yet,  he  gets  worse  and  we  are  much  allarmed 
at  his  situation,  all  attention  to  him.  .  .  ." 

"  August  20.  .  .  .  Sergeant  Floyd  much 
weaker  and  no  better.  .  .  .  Died  with  a 
great  deel  of  composure,  before  his  death  he 
said  to  me  '  I  am  going  away  I  want  you  to 
write  me  a  letter. '  We  buried  him  on  the 
top  of  the  bluff  one-half  mile  below  a  small 
river  to  which  we  gave  his  name,  he  was 
buried  with  the  Honors  of  War  much  la- 
mented, a  seeder  post  with  the  Name  Sergt. 
C.  Floyd  died  here  20th  August,  1804,  was 
fixed  at  the  head  of  his  grave  —  This  man 
at  all  times  gave  us  proofs  of  his  firmness 
and  Determined  resolution  to  doe  service 
to  his  countrey  and  honor  to  himself  after 
paying  all  the  honor  to  our  Decesed  brother 
we  camped  in  the  mouth  of  floyds  river  about 
thirty  yards  wide,  a  butifull  evening." 

Upon  the  death  of  Floyd,  Private  Patrick 
Grass  was  made  a  sergeant,  —  a  wise  choice, 
determined  by  the  votes  of  the  men. 


50  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

Besides  the  death  of  Floyd,  but  one  other 
incident  occurred  in  the  twenty -eight  months 
to  affect  the  integrity  of  the  corps.  A  man 
had  deserted  on  August  4th;  two  weeks 
later  he  had  been  recaptured ;  and  for  the 
28th  there  is  this  entry  in  Captain  Clark's 
journal :  — 

"  Proceeded  to  the  trial  of  Reed,  he  con- 
fessed that  he  'deserted  &  Stold  a  public 
Rifle  shot-pouch  Powder  &  Ball'  and  re- 
quested we  would  be  as  favorable  to  him  as 
we  could  consistently  with  our  Oathes  — 
which  we  were  and  only  sentenced  him  to 
run  the  gantlet  four  times  through  the  Party 
and  that  each  man  with  9  switchies  should 
punish  him  &  for  him  not  to  be  considered 
in  future  as  one  of  the  Party." 

So  stanch  were  the  men  in  their  allegiance, 
and  so  trustworthy  in  the  performance  of 
their  duties,  that  in  only  one  other  place  in 
all  the  journals  is  there  mention  of  an  act  of 
discipline. 


CHAPTER  V 

WITH   THE   SIOUX 

TOWARD  the  end  of  August  the  party 
reached  the  Sioux  country.  Some  of  the 
tribes  of  this  nation  were  known  to  be 
friendly  toward  the  whites,  while  others 
had  acquired  a  manner  overbearing  and  in- 
solent, inspired  by  the  inferior  numbers  of 
the  traders  who  had  visited  them  hi  the  past, 
and  by  the  subservient  attitude  which  these 
had  assumed.  From  such  tribes  there  was 
good  reason  to  anticipate  opposition,  or  even 
open  hostility.  But  the  specific  nature  of 
their  mission  made  the  officers  desirous  of  a 
personal  meeting  with  all  tribes,  irrespective 
of  their  past  reputation.  There  is  a  saying 
familiar  to  Western  folk :  "  Show  an  Indian 
that  you  are  afraid  of  him,  and  he  will  give 
you  reason  for  fear."  The  travelers  were 
not  afraid.  They  adopted  the  custom  of  the 
traders  and  set  fire  to  the  dry  grasses  of  the 


52  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

prairie,  intending  that  the  smoke  should  no- 
tify the  Indians  of  their  approach  and  sum- 
mon them  to  the  river.  Shortly  before  this 
they  had  encountered  upon  the  river  one 
Pierre  Dorion,  a  half-breed  son  of  the  nota- 
ble Old  Dorion,  whose  fame  is  celebrated  in 
Irving's  "  Astoria."  This  man  was  then  on 
his  way  to  St.  Louis,  but  was  persuaded  to  re- 
turn with  the  expedition  to  his  home  among 
the  Sioux,  there  to  act  as  interpreter  and 
intermediary,  in  which  service  he  proved 
useful. 

Relations  with  the  Sioux  began  on  the 
29th  of  August.  The  meeting  was  attended 
with  elaborate  ceremonies.  One  of  the  non- 
commissioned officers  was  dispatched  with 
Dorion  to  a  village  twelve  miles  distant 
from  the  camp,  taking  presents  of  tobacco, 
corn,  and  cooking  utensils.  In  view  of  the 
later  history  of  the  Sioux,  and  because  of 
the  intrinsic  charm  of  the  narrative,  the 
story  of  this  encounter  is  quoted  at  length 
from  Mr.  Biddle's  well-edited  version :  — 

"  August  29th.  .  .  .  Sergeant  Pryor  re- 
ported that  on  reaching  their  village,  he  was 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  53 

met  by  a  party  with  a  buffalo-robe,  on  which 
they  desired  to  carry  their  visitors,  —  an 
honor  which  they  declined,  informing  the 
Indians  that  they  were  not  the  commanders 
of  the  boats.  As  a  great  mark  of  respect, 
they  were  then  presented  with  a  fat  dog, 
already  cooked,  of  which  they  partook  heart- 
ily, and  found  it  well  flavored.  .  .  . 

"August  30th.  .  .  .  We  prepared  a  speech 
and  some  presents,  and  then  sent  for  the 
chiefs  and  warriors,  whom  we  received,  at 
twelve  o'clock,  under  a  large  oak  tree,  near 
which  the  flag  of  the  United  States  was  fly- 
ing. Captain  Lewis  delivered  a  speech,  with 
the  usual  advice  and  counsel  for  their  future 
conduct.  We  acknowledged  their  chiefs,  by 
giving  to  the  grand  chief  a  flag,  a  medal,  a 
certificate,  and  a  string  of  wampum ;  to  which 
we  added  a  chief's  coat  —  that  is,  a  richly 
laced  uniform  of  the  United  States  Artillery 
corps,  with  a  cocked  hat  and  red  feather. 
One  second  chief  and  three  inferior  ones 
were  made  or  recognized  by  medals,  a  suit- 
able present  of  tobacco,  and  articles  of  cloth- 
ing. We  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace,  and  the 


64  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

chiefs  retired  to  a  bower  formed  of  bushes 
by  their  young  men,  where  they  divided 
among  one  another  the  presents,  smoked, 
eat,  and  held  a  council  on  the  answer  which 
they  were  to  make  us  to-morrow.  The  young 
people  exercised  their  bows  and  arrows  in 
shooting  at  marks  for  beads,  which  we  dis- 
tributed to  their  best  marksmen.  In  the 
evening  the  whole  party  danced  until  a  late 
hour,  and,  in  the  course  of  their  amusement, 
we  threw  among  them  some  knives,  tobacco, 
bells,  tape,  and  binding,  with  which  they 
were  much  pleased.  .  .  . 

"August  31st.  In  the  morning,  after 
breakfast,  the  chiefs  met  and  sat  down  in  a 
row,  with  pipes  of  peace  highly  ornamented ; 
all  pointed  toward  the  seats  intended  for 
Captains  Lewis  and  Clark.  When  they  ar- 
rived and  were  seated,  the  grand  chief,  whose 
Indian  name  Weucha  is  in  English  Shake 
Hand,  and  in  French  is  called  Le  Libera- 
teur  (The  Deliverer),  rose  and  spoke  at 
some  length,  approving  what  we  had  said, 
and  promising  to  follow  our  advice.  *  I  see 
before  me,'  said  he,  6  my  Great  Father's  two 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  65 

sons.  You  see  me  and  the  rest  of  our  chiefs 
and  warriors.  We  are  very  poor  ;  we  have 
neither  powder,  nor  ball,  nor  knives ;  and 
our  women  and  children  at  the  village  have 
no  clothes.  I  wish  that  as  my  brothers  have 
given  me  a  flag  and  a  medal,  they  would 
give  something  to  those  poor  people,  or  let 
them  stop  and  trade  with  the  first  boat  which 
comes  up  the  river.  I  will  bring  chiefs  of 
the  Pawnees  and  Mahas  together,  and  make 
peace  between  them ;  but  it  is  better  that  I 
should  do  it  than  my  Great  Father's  sons,  for 
they  will  listen  to  me  more  readily.  I  will 
also  take  some  chiefs  to  your  country  in  the 
Spring ;  but  before  that  time  I  cannot  leave 
home.  I  went  formerly  to  the  English,  and 
they  gave  me  a  medal  and  some  clothes; 
when  I  went  to  the  Spanish,  they  gave  me  a 
medal,  but  nothing  to  keep  it  from  my  skin ; 
but  now  you  give  me  a  medal  and  clothes. 
But  still  we  are  poor;  and  I  wish,  brothers, 
that  you  would  give  us  something  for  our 
squaws.' 

.  .  .  "  They  promised  to  make  peace  with 
the  Otoes  and  Missouris,  the  only  nations 


56  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

with  whom  they  are  now  at  war.  All  these 
harangues  concluded  by  describing  the  dis- 
tress of  the  nation  ;  they  begged  us  to  have 
pity  on  them ;  to  send  them  traders ;  they 
wanted  powder  and  ball,  and  seemed  anx- 
ious that  we  should  supply  them  with  some 
of  their  Great  Father's  milk,  the  name  by 
which  they  distinguished  ardent  spirits." 

These  were  the  Yanktons,  one  of  the  im- 
portant tribes  of  the  great  Sioux  nation. 
The  Yanktons  have  always  been  known  to 
the  whites  as  a  people  of  distinction,  shrewd, 
artful,  good  hunters,  good  fighters,  and  alto- 
gether quite  able  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
In  their  inmost  hearts,  they  were  vain  of 
their  prestige  amongst  their  inferior  neigh- 
bors ;  nor  did  they  really  acknowledge  the 
superiority  of  the  whites.  Their  speeches 
must  be  taken  as  declarations  of  momentary 
policy,  and  not  of  fixed  principles.  Further, 
they  did  not  express  the  thought  of  the  tribe 
as  a  whole,  but  only  the  inclinations  of  those 
chiefs  who  were  for  the  time  in  authority, 
and  whose  word  was  for  that  time  the  tribal 
law.  The  bearing  of  the  Yanktons,  as  of 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  57 

almost  every  other  Indian  tribe,  has  been 
modified  or  altogether  changed,  time  and 
again,  under  the  will  of  successive  chiefs. 

The  attention  of  the  expedition  was  not 
wholly  engrossed  with  the  Indians.  From 
day  to  day  the  journals  are  filled  with  care- 
ful and  valuable  notes  upon  the  natural  his- 
tory and  physical  geography  of  the  land, 
about  which  nothing  had  as  yet  been  written. 
Under  the  date  of  September  7th  there  oc- 
curs a  good  description  of  the  prairie-dog ; 
and  on  the  17th  the  antelope  of  the  West- 
ern plains  was  described.  Both  of  these 
animals  were  then  unknown  to  science. 

September  25th  the  party  walked  close  to 
the  edge  of  catastrophe,  when  they  met  with 
another  tribe  of  the  Sioux,  —  the  Tetons. 
This  was  the  first  occasion  for  an  exhibition 
of  the  fighting  temper  of  the  men.  In  de- 
scribing the  encounter,  Captain  Clark's  jour- 
nal is  as  usual  picturesque  and  graphic :  — 

"Envited  the  Chiefs  on  board  to  show 
them  our  boat  &  such  curiossities  as  was 
strange  to  them,  we  gave  them  J  a  glass  of 
whiskey  which  they  appeared  to  be  verry 


58  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

fond  of,  sucked  the  bottle  after  it  was  out 
&  soon  began  to  be  troublesom,  one  the  2d 
chief  assumeing  Drunkness,  as  a  Cloaki  for 
his  rascally  intentions.  I  went  with  those 
chiefs  (which  left  the  boat  with  great  reluc- 
tiance)  to  shore  with  a  view  of  reconseleing 
those  men  to  us,  as  soon  as  I  landed  the 
Perogue  three  of  their  young  men  seased  the 
cable  of  the  Perogue,  the  chiefs  soldr.  Huged 
the  mast,  and  the  2d  chief  was  verry  insolent 
both  in  words  &  justures  declareing  I  should 
not  go  on,  stateing  he  had  not  received  pre- 
sents sufficient  from  us,  his  justures  were  of 
such  a  personal  nature  I  felt  myself  compeled 
to  Draw  my  sword,  at  this  motion  Capt  Lewis 
ordered  all  under  arms  in  the  boat,  those 
with  me  also  showed  a  disposition  to  Defend 
themselves  and  me,  the  grand  chief  then  took 
hold  of  the  roap  &  ordered  the  young  war- 
rers  away,  I  felt  myself  warm  &  spoke  in 
very  positive  terms.  We  proceeded  about 
1  mile  &  anchored  out  off  a  willow  Island 
placed  a  guard  on  shore  to  protect  the  Cooks 
&  a  guard  in  the  boat,  fastened  the  Perogues 
to  the  boat,  I  call  this  Island  Bad  Humered 
Island  as  we  were  in  a  bad  humer." 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  59 

The  journals  for  the  next  day  say :  — 
44  Our  conduct  yesterday  seemed  to  have 
inspired  the  Indians  with  fear  of  us,  and  as 
we  were  desirous  of  cultivating  their  ac- 
quaintance, we  complied  with  their  wish  that 
we  should  give  them  an  opportunity  of  treat- 
ing us  well,  and  also  suffer  their  squaws  and 
children  to  see  us  and  our  boat,  which  would 
be  perfectly  new  to  them.  Accordingly  .  .  . 
we  came  to  on  the  south  side,  where  a  crowd 
of  men,  women  and  children  were  waiting  to 
receive  us.  Captain  Lewis  went  on  shore 
and  remained  several  hours ;  and  observing 
that  their  disposition  was  friendly,  we  re- 
solved to  remain  during  the  night  for  a 
dance,  which  they  were  preparing  for  us." 

The  two  officers  were  received  on  shore 
by  ten  welUdressed  young  men,  who  took 
them  up  in  a  decorated  robe  and  carried 
them  in  state  to  the  council-house.  There 
the  pipe  of  peace  was  smoked,  a  ceremoni- 
ous dog-feast  was  prepared;  the  chieftains 
delivered  themselves  of  speeches,  divided  be- 
tween fawning  adulation  and  flamboyant 
boasting ;  and  then  came  a  sort  of  state 


60  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

ball,  which  continued  until  midnight.  The 
next  morning  the  travelers  were  suffered  to 
proceed. 

That  was  a  notable  encounter.  The  Te- 
tons  have  always  been  counted  among  the 
most  irresponsible  villains  of  their  race, 
treacherous  by  first  impulse,  murderous  by 
strongest  inclination,  thievish  according  to 
opportunity,  combining  the  effrontery  of 
Italian  beggars  with  the  boldness  begotten 
by  their  own  sanguinary  history.  Yet  this 
determined  little  band  faced  them  in  the 
heart  of  their  own  land,  and  overawed 
them. 

For  many  days  thereafter,  parties  of  the 
Tetons  appeared  from  time  to  time  upon  the 
river  banks,  following  the  boats,  begging, 
threatening,  doing  everything  in  their  power 
to  harass  the  advance.  No  doubt  they  had 
already  repented  of  their  brief  show  of  de- 
cency, and  would  have  made  an  open  demon- 
stration had  they  dared.  Through  those 
days  the  men  generally  encamped  upon 
islands  or  sand-bars  in  mid-stream,  deeming 
it  wise  to  avoid  further  contact  with  the 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  61 

tribe.  It  was  a  decided  relief  to  get  beyond 
their  territory. 

On  October  10th  they  reached  the  land 
of  the  Eicaras,  a  tribe  whose  conduct,  in  all 
domestic  and  foreign  relations,  was  in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  that  of  the  Sioux,  and  indeed 
almost  unique.  The  Eicaras  could  not  be 
induced  to  drink  whiskey ! 

Soon  after  the  arrival  at  the  Eicara  vil- 
lages, one  of  the  privates  was  tried  by  court- 
martial  for  some  act  of  insubordination,  and 
was  sentenced  to  be  publicly  whipped.  The 
execution  of  the  sentence  "  affected  the  In- 
dian chief  very  sensibly,  for  he  cried  aloud 
during  the  punishment."  When  the  matter 
was  explained  to  him,  "  he  acknowledged 
that  examples  were  necessary,  and  that  he 
himself  had  given  them  by  punishing  with 
death;  but  his  nation  never  whipped  even 
children  from  their  birth."  Universal  so- 
briety, and  compassionate  tears  from  the 
eyes  of  a  warrior !  Surely,  that  tribe  was 
curious. 

By  the  last  of  October  the  travelers  came 
to  the  camps  of  the  Mancjans  and  Minneta- 


62  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

rees,  1600  miles  from  St.  Louis ;  and  there, 
being  warned  by  the  calendar  and  by  cold, 
they  prepared  to  take  up  winter  quarters. 
Their  first  care  was  to  find  a  suitable  place 
for  building  log  cabins  and  fortifications. 
With  this  work  the  men  were  engaged  until 
November  20th,  when  Fort  Mandan  was 
completed  and  occupied. 

Meanwhile,  the  officers  had  sought  to  ex- 
tend acquaintance  among  the  Indians,  and 
to  establish  confidence  and  bring  them  into 
sympathy  with  the  new  conditions  of  govern- 
ment. So  far  as  pledges  were  concerned, 
they  were  fairly  successful ;  the  Indians  re- 
ceived them  hospitably. 

The  Mandans  had  once  been  a  powerful 
nation,  living  in  numerous  villages  down  the 
river;  but  continued  wars  with  the  Sioux, 
coupled  with  sad  ravages  of  the  small-pox, 
had  reduced  them  to  an  insignificant  num- 
ber, and  compelled  them  to  remove  out  of 
easy  reach  of  their  strongest  enemies.  When 
Lewis  and  Clark  came  upon  them,  they 
formed  only  a  trifling  souvenir  of  their  past 
grandeur ;  they  had  then  but  two  poor  vil- 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  63 

lages  at  this  remote  site,  where  they  lived  in 
a  precarious  hand-to-mouth  fashion,  having 
no  allies  but  a  small  force  of  Minnetarees 
near  by. 

But  Fate  had  managed  the  matter  very 
well,  no  doubt,  in  depriving  these  people  of 
effective  strength  in  war;  for  at  this  time 
the  head  chief  of  the  Minnetaree  villages 
was  a  man  who,  given  opportunity,  would 
have  made  the  river  run  red  with  the  blood 
of  his  enemies.  This  was  Le  Borgne,  a 
one-eyed  old  despot,  of  surpassing  cruelty 
and  bloodthirstiness,  whose  very  name,  even 
in  his  present  position,  would  compel  a 
shiver  of  apprehension.  A  chief  such  as  he, 
at  the  head  of  forces  matched  to  his  fero- 
cious desires,  would  have  changed  the  history 
of  the  Upper  Missouri.  As  it  was,  he  spent 
most  of  his  villainous  instincts  for  his  own 
private  amusement,  —  occasionally  slaugh- 
tering one  of  his  warriors  who  had  given 
him  displeasure,  or  butchering  a  couple  of 
his  wives  whose  society  had  grown  irksome  ; 
and  between  times  he  leered  with  his  solitary 
evil  eye  upon  the  traders,  contriving  ways 


64:  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

for  getting  whiskey  with  which  to  bait  his 
passions.  The  British  traders  of  the  Hud- 
son Bay  and  Northwest  companies  had  long 
before  secured  a  strong  foothold  in  this  ter- 
ritory, and  had  sought  by  every  means  to 
monopolize  the  traffic.  The  ubiquitous 
French  were  there  also,  domiciled  in  the  vil- 
lages, and  some  of  them  had  taken  squaws 
to  wife.  With  schooling  from  such  as 
these,  old  Le  Borgne  had  cut  his  wisdom 
teeth  ;  he  had  made  himself  master  of  many 
low  tricks  and  subtleties  practiced  by  white 
traders  and  vagabonds ;  he  was  as  skillful 
as  the  best  of  them  in  making  promises,  and 
as  skillful  as  the  worst  in  breaking  them. 
He  was  a  scamp,  and  a  blackguard. 

Lewis  and  Clark  succeeded  directly  in  ef- 
fecting a  treaty  of  peace  between  the  Man- 
dans  and  Kicaras,  and  among  other  small 
tribes  of  the  region  round  about ;  but  they 
were  powerless  in  trying  to  reconcile  these 
people  to  the  Sioux,  who  were  the  bogie-men 
of  the  plains,  and  who  conducted  themselves 
in  every  affair  of  peace  or  war  with  the  ar- 
rogance of  incontestable  power.  Not  death 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  65 

itself  could  extinguish  the  hatred  that  was 
felt  for  them  by  the  weaker  tribes,  com- 
pelled to  skulk  and  tremble. 

Early  in  November  the  officers  received  a 
visit  from  two  squaws,  who  had  been  taken 
prisoners  by  the  Mandans,  many  years  be- 
fore, in  a  war  with  the  Snake  Indians  of  the 
Eocky  Mountains.  One  of  these  squaws 
was  named  Sacajawea,  the  "  Bird  Woman  "  ; 
she  had  been  but  a  child  at  the  time  of  her 
capture,  when  she  had  been  taken  to  the 
Mandan  villages  and  there  sold  to  a  French- 
man, known  as  Chaboneau,  who  kept  her 
until  she  reached  womanhood  and  then  mar- 
ried her.  She  was  destined  to  play  a  con- 
siderable part  in  the  later  work  of  the  expe- 
dition, and  to  lend  to  it  one  of  its  few  ele- 
ments of  true  romance. 

The  winter  was  passed  busily,  but  for  the 
most  part  quietly.  The  men  suffered  no 
serious  deprivation.  Game  was  abundant ; 
and  one  member  of  the  party,  who  was  a 
good  amateur  blacksmith,  set  up  a  small 
forge,  where  he  turned  out  a  variety  of  tools, 
implements,  and  trinkets,  which  were  traded 


66  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

to  the  Indians  for  corn.  Everything  went 
well.  The  officers  were  as  busy  as  the  men, 
and  their  occupations  were  varied  and  vital. 

They  found  difficulty  in  getting  credit  for 
the  news  they  bore  that  the  government  of 
the  United  States  was  to  be  thereafter  in 
fact  as  well  as  in  name  the  controlling 
agency  in  administering  the  affairs  of  the 
territory  and  in  regulating  trade.  To  make 
the  Indian  mind  ready  to  receive  this  lesson, 
it  was  first  necessary  to  correct  the  evils  bred 
by  the  earlier  short-sighted  rule  of  the  Span- 
ish, and  to  uproot  a  strong  predisposition  in 
favor  of  the  British  traders.  The  Hudson 
Bay  Company  had  been  in  existence  since 
1670,  and  the  Northwest  Company  since 
1787;  and  they  were  not  inclined  to  surren- 
der their  control  of  trade  without  a  struggle. 

Aside  from  this  task,  the  two  youthful 
men-of-all-work  were  continually  engaged  in 
gathering  material  for  a  report  upon  the 
ethnology  of  the  Upper  Missouri  and  the 
plains.  They  have  left  to  us  a  remarkably 
acute  and  accurate  monograph  upon  the 
subject,  which  shows  that  they  were  even 


WITH  THE  SIOUX  67 

then  alive  to  most  of  the  questions  likely  to 
arise  in  the  process  of  reducing  the  land  to 
order.  The  data  thus  collected  were  entered 
at  length  in  the  journals ;  and  a  fair  copy 
of  these  was  made,  for  transmittal  to  Wash- 
ington in  the  spring.  There  were  maps  to 
be  drawn,  too ;  and  a  mass  of  interesting 
objects  was  gathered  to  illustrate  the  natu- 
ral history  of  the  route.  This  material  had 
to  be  cleaned,  prepared,  assorted  and  cata- 
logued, and  packed  for  shipment,  to  accom- 
pany the  report  and  illuminate  its  story,  so 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  might  have  a  full  under- 
standing of  what  had  been  accomplished 
during  the  first  year.  The  five  months 
spent  at  Fort  Mandan  did  not  drag.  The 
best  part  of  the  winter's  work  lay  in  the 
attitude  which  was  taken  in  dealing  with  the 
Indians.  In  every  particular  of  behavior, 
the  strictest  integrity  was  observed.  An 
Indian  is  as  ready  as  any  one  to  recognize 
genuineness.  Before  springtime,  the  Man- 
dans  and  Minnetarees  knew  that  they  had 
found  friends. 

In  March  the  men  began  boat-building, 


68  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

preparatory  to  resuming  their  journey.  The 
batteau  was  too  cumbrous  for  use  toward  the 
head  waters  of  the  Missouri,  and  it  was  to  be 
sent  back  to  St.  Louis.  To  take  its  place, 
canoes  were  fashioned  from  green  cotton- 
wood  planks.  Cottonwood  lumber  is  full  of 
whims  and  caprices,  —  bending,  twisting, 
cracking  like  brown  paper,  so  as  to  be 
wholly  unfit  for  ordinary  carpentry ;  but 
there  was  no  other  material  available.  Six 
canoes  were  made  to  hang  together  some- 
how ;  and  in  these  ramshackle  structures, 
together  with  the  two  periogues,  the  party 
covered  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  the 
roughest  water  of  the  Missouri.  Annoyance 
was  to  be  expected.  The  boats  were  contin- 
ually splitting,  opening  at  the  seams,  filling, 
and  swamping,  so  that  much  time  was  lost 
in  stopping  to  make  repairs  and  to  dry  the 
water-soaked  cargoes.  This  was  merely  an 
inconvenience,  not  an  obstacle. 


CHAPTER  VI 

TO   THE   FALLS   OF  THE  MISSOURI 

ON  the  afternoon  of  April  7,  1805,  win- 
ter quarters  were  abandoned.  Of  the  origi- 
nal forty-five  men  two  had  been  lost ;  but 
three  recruits  had  been  gained,  —  Chabo- 
neau,  his  squaw  Sacajawea,  and  their  infant 
son,  born  in  February.  From  Fort  Mandan 
fourteen  of  the  men  returned  to  St.  Louis 
in  the  barge,  carrying  documents,  collections, 
and  trophies,  while  thirty-two  went  onward, 
to  be  separated  from  their  kind  for  almost 
eighteen  months.  On  this  day  Captain 
Lewis  wrote  in  his  journal :  — 

"  This  little  fleet  altho'  not  quite  so  ri- 
spectable  as  those  of  Columbus  or  Capt 
Cook,  were  still  viewed  by  us  with  as  much 
pleasure  as  those  deservedly  famed  adven- 
turers ever  beheld  theirs;  and  I  dare  say 
with  quite  as  much  anxiety  for  their  safety 
and  preservation.  We  were  now  about  to 


70  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

penetrate  a  country  at  least  two  thousand 
miles  in  width,  on  which  the  foot  of  civilized 
man  had  never  trodden ;  the  good  or  evil  it 
had  in  store  for  us  was  for  experiment  yet 
to  determine,  and  these  little  vessells  con- 
tained every  article  by  which  we  were  to 
expect  to  subsist  or  defend  ourselves.  How- 
ever as  the  state  of  mind  in  which  we  are, 
generally  gives  the  coloring  to  events,  when 
the  imagination  is  suffered  to  wander  into 
futurity,  the  picture  which  now  presented 
itself  to  me  was  a  most  pleasing  one,  enter- 
taining as  I  do  the  most  confident  hope  of 
succeeding  in  a  voyage  which  had  formed  a 
darling  project  of  mine  for  the  last  ten 
years,  I  could  but  esteem  this  moment  of 
our  departure  as  among  the  most  happy  of 
my  life." 

April  26th  they  came  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Yellowstone  River,  which  enters  the  Missouri 
1888  miles  above  St.  Louis.  They  had  had 
no  adventure  of  moment ;  neither  was  there 
cause  for  immediate  anxiety,  save  as  they 
observed  signs  of  the  Assiniboins.  From 
the  tribes  with  whom  they  had  talked  at 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    71 

winter  quarters,  they  had  heard  stirring 
tales  of  this  cut-throat  band,  which  had  in- 
spired the  wish  to  pass  unobserved  through 
their  country.  This  desire  was  fulfilled. 
There  was  no  meeting  with  the  Assiniboins. 
Of  all  the  wild  creatures  of  the  Western 
wilderness,  the  one  which  could  least  be 
spared  from  the  literature  of  adventure  is 
the  grizzly  bear.  Lewis  and  Clark  were 
the  first  white  men  to  give  an  account  of 
this  beast.  Many  of  the  Indian  lodge-tales 
to  which  they  had  listened  rang  with  the 
fame  of  the  grizzly,  as  a  background  for  the 
greater  fame  of  the  narrators.  As  a  matter 
of  course,  fact  and  figment  were  inextricably 
blended  in  these  tales ;  but,  while  they  did 
not  show  the  animal  as  it  was,  they  could 
not  exaggerate  its  untamable  courage,  its  fe- 
rocity, or  its  rugged  power  of  endurance. 
On  April  29th,  Captain  Lewis,  with  a  party 
of  hunters,  proved  the  truth  of  all  that  had 
been  told  him  upon  these  points,  and  more  ; 
and  upon  many  occasions  thereafter,  while 
the  party  was  making  its  way  from  the  Yel- 
lowstone country  to  the  mountains,  there 


72  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

were  encounters  from  which  the  men  escaped 
by  mere  good  fortune.  The  most  critical 
adventures  with  the  Indians  were  but  child's 
play  in  comparison.  Despite  their  boast- 
ing, the  Indians  would  seldom  venture  to 
provoke  a  fight  with  a  grizzly,  except  in 
the  most  favorable  circumstances,  and  when 
strength  of  numbers  inspired  them  with  bra- 
vado. Reckless  and  headlong  as  wild  ele- 
phants, nothing  would  daunt  the  grizzlies, 
once  they  had  set  about  fighting;  and  so 
hardy  were  they  as  often  to  escape,  appar- 
ently unharmed,  though  their  vital  parts 
were  riddled  with  lead. 

Until  the  Rocky  Mountains  were  reached, 
there  was  almost  no  hardship  arising  from 
scarcity  of  food.  Early  in  May,  Captain 
Lewis  wrote  that  game  of  all  sorts  abounded, 
being  so  gentle  as  to  take  no  alarm  of  the 
hunters.  "  The  male  buffalo  particularly 
will  hardly  give  way  to  us,  and  as  we  ap- 
proach will  merely  look  at  us  for  a  moment, 
as  something  new,  and  then  quietly  resume 
their  feeding.  .  .  .  Game  is  in  such  plenty 
that  it  has  become  a  mere  amusement  to 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    73 

supply  the  party  with  provisions."  In  the 
months  that  followed,  the  men  carried  a 
blessed  memory  of  that  abundance. 

As  they  drew  near  to  the  foothills,  navi- 
gation became  more  and  more  difficult. 
The  river  lost  the  sullen,  muddy  aspect  of 
its  lower  course,  where  it  flowed  between 
low,  sandy  banks,  and  took  the  character  of 
a  mountain  stream,  walled  with  rock  and 
filled  with  dangers.  Then  it  was  that  the 
cottonwood  skiffs  betrayed  their  weaknesses. 
Accidents  were  of  almost  daily  occurrence  ; 
and  on  one  occasion  the  boat  containing  the 
instruments  and  papers  was  nearly  lost. 
They  were  then  more  than  two  thousand 
miles  from  any  place  where  such  a  loss  could 
have  been  repaired.  To  go  on  would  have 
been  idle,  without  means  for  making  accu- 
rate observations;  they  would  have  been 
obliged  to  turn  back.  In  the  face  of  this 
perpetual  threat,  they  had  no  resource  but 
to  take  their  chances  with  luck;  with  the 
best  they  could  do,  they  could  not  ade- 
quately safeguard  themselves  against  calam- 
ity. For  the  time  being,  at  least,  they  were 
rank  fatalists. 


74  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

On  Sunday,  May  26th,  Captain  Lewis 
left  camp  on  foot,  ascended  to  the  summit 
of  a  ridge  of  hills  near  the  river,  and  from 
the  height  had  his  first  glimpse  of  the  dis- 
tant ranges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  This 
was  about  a  year  and  a  half  before  Pike's 
discovery.  The  journal  entry  for  that  day 
comes  near  to  showing  emotion :  — 

"  While  I  viewed  these  mountains  I  felt 
a  secret  pleasure  in  thus  finding  myself  so 
near  the  head  of  the  hitherto  conceived 
boundless  Missouri ;  but  when  I  reflected 
on  the  difficulties  which  this  snowey  barrier 
would  most  probably  throw  in  my  way  to 
the  Pacific,  and  the  sufferings  and  hardships 
of  myself  and  party  in  them,  it  in  some  mea- 
sure counterbalanced  the  joy  I  had  felt  in 
the  first  moments  in  which  I  gazed  on  them  ; 
but  as  I  have  always  held  it  a  crime  to  anti- 
cipate evils  I  will  believe  it  a  good  comfort- 
able road  until  I  am  compelled  to  believe 
differently." 

Progress  grew  increasingly  hard.  Rapids 
were  numerous,  over  which  the  boats  could 
not  be  urged  with  oars ;  so  the  men  were 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    75 

compelled  to  walk  upon  the  banks,  drawing 
the  craft  with  tow-lines.  These  lines  were 
made  mostly  of  elk-skin,  which  became  soft- 
ened and  rotted  by  the  water  and  often 
broke  under  the  strain,  causing  many  acci- 
dents of  a  trying  and  serious  nature.  The 
banks  were  sometimes  so  rocky  and  precip- 
itous as  to  afford  no  foothold  ;  then  the  men 
took  to  the  water,  wading,  swimming,  mak- 
ing headway  as  they  could.  One  extract 
from  the  journals  will  illustrate  the  severity 
of  their  toil :  — 

"May  31st  [a  rainy  day].  Obstructions 
continue,  and  fatigue  the  men  excessively. 
The  banks  acre  so  slippery  in  some  places, 
and  the  mud  so  adhesive,  that  they  are  un- 
able to  wear  their  moccasins ;  one  fourth  of 
the  time  they  are  obliged  to  be  up  to  their 
arm-pits  in  the  cold  water,  and  sometimes 
they  walk  for  several  hours  over  the  sharp 
fragments  of  rocks  which  have  fallen  from 
the  hills.  All  this,  added  to  the  burden  of 
dragging  the  heavy  canoes,  is  very  painful ; 
yet  the  men  bear  it  with  great  patience  and 
good  humour." 


76  LEWI  S  AND  CLARK 

On  June  3d  they  came  to  a  point  where 
the  river  forked;  and  here,  as  the  forks 
were  of  nearly  equal  volume,  they  were  in 
doubt  as  to  their  route.  Captain  Lewis 
wrote  :  — 

"  On  our  right  decision  much  of  the  fate 
of  the  expedition  depends ;  since  if,  after 
ascending  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  or  be- 
yond them,  we  should  find  that  the  river  we 
were  following  did  not  come  near  the  Colum- 
bia, and  be  obliged  to  return,  we  should  not 
only  be  losing  the  traveling  season,  two 
months  of  which  have  already  elapsed,  but 
probably  dishearten  the  men  so  much  as  to 
induce  them  either  to  abandon  the  enterprise, 
or  yield  us  a  cold  obedience,  instead  of  the 
warm  and  zealous  support  which  they  have 
hitherto  afforded  us.  ...  The  fatigues  of 
the  last  few  days  have  occasioned  some  fall- 
ing off  in  the  appearance  of  the  men  ;  who, 
not  having  been  able  to  wear  their  mocca- 
sins, have  had  their  feet  much  bruised  and 
mangled  in  passing  over  the  stones  and  rough 
ground.  They  are,  however,  perfectly  cheer- 
ful, and  have  an  undiminished  ardor  for  the 
expedition." 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    77 

In  order  to  settle  the  doubt,  the  officers 
took  each  one  branch  of  the  stream  and  pro- 
ceeded to  explore  it  for  some  distance  above 
the  confluence,  to  determine  its  direction. 
Captain  Lewis,  ascending  the  northern 
fork,  became  convinced  that  it  was  not  the 
main  stream;  and  to  it  he  gave  the  name, 
which  it  still  bears,  of  Maria's  River.  His 
warmth  of  youth  speaks  in  this  paragraph : 

"  I  determined  to  give  it  a  name  and  in 
honour  of  Miss  Maria  W — d  [Maria  Wood, 
his  cousin]  called  it  Maria's  River.  It  is 
true  that  the  hue  of  the  waters  of  this  turbu- 
lent and  troubled  stream  but  illy  comport 
with  the  pure  celestial  virtues  and  amiable 
qualifications  of  that  lovely  fair  one ;  but 
on  the  other  hand  it  is  a  noble  river ;  one 
destined  to  become  in  my  opinion  an  object 
of  contention  between  the  two  great  powers 
of  America  and  Great  Britin,  with  rispect 
to  the  adjustment  of  the  North  westwardly 
boundary  of  the  former  ;  and  that  it  will  be- 
come one  of  the  most  interesting  branches 
of  the  Missouri." 

Meanwhile,  Captain  Clark  had  gone  far 


78  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

enough  along  the  southern  fork  to  satisfy 
himself  that  that  was  the  proper  course; 
and  when  he  rejoined  Captain  Lewis  at  the 
confluence,  preparations  were  made  for  con- 
tinuing the  journey.  It  was  then  clear  that 
the  burdens  of  the  men  must  be  lightened ; 
accordingly,  considerable  quantities  of  mer- 
chandise, ammunition,  etc.,  were  buried  in 
the  earth,  or  "  cached,"  after  a  method 
often  followed  by  travelers  of  the  West ; 
care  being  taken  to  preserve  the  stores 
against  moisture.  One  of  the  periogues 
also  was  left  at  this  place,  securely  hidden. 

While  this  work  was  going  on,  Captain 
Lewis,  with  several  of  the  men,  proceeded  to 
explore  the  southern  stream  more  minutely, 
seeking  to  devise  means  for  passing  the 
canon  at  the  mouth  of  which  the  party  was 
encamped.  June  13th  he  heard  in  the  dis- 
tance the  roar  of  the  Great  Falls  of  the 
Missouri ;  and,  after  pushing  on  for  several 
miles,  he  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  lower  cas- 
cade. Relying  upon  descriptions  which  had 
been  given  by  the  Indians  at  the  Mandan 
villages,  he  now  felt  assured  that  the  right 
way  had  been  chosen. 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    79 

He  seated  himself  before  the  roaring 
sheet  of  water,  and  endeavored  to  put  a  de- 
scription of  it  upon  paper ;  but  then  he 
added  helplessly :  — 

"  After  wrighting  this  imperfect  descrip- 
tion I  again  viewed  the  falls  and  was  so 
much  disgusted  with  the  imperfect  idea 
which  it  conveyed  of  the  scene  that  I  de- 
termined to  draw  my  pen  across  it  and  be- 
gin agin,  but  then  reflected  that  I  could 
not  perhaps  succeed  better  than  penning  the 
first  impressions  of  the  mind ;  I  wished  for 
the  pencil  of  a  Salvator  Kosa,  or  the  pen  of  a 
Thompson,  that  I  might  be  enabled  to  give 
to  the  enlightened  world  some  just  idea  of 
this  truly  magnificent  and  sublimely  grand 
object,  which  has  from  the  commencement 
of  time  been  concealed  from  the  view  of  civ- 
ilized man  ;  but  this  was  fruitless  and  vain. 
I  most  sincerely  regreted  that  I  had  not 
brought  a  chimeeobscura  with  me  by  the 
assistance  of  which  I  could  have  hoped  to 
have  done  better  but  alas  this  was  also  out 
of  my  reach  ;  I  therefore,  with  my  pen  only 
endeavored  to  trace  some  of  the  stronger 


80  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

features  of  this  seen  by  the  assistance  of 
which  and  my  recollection  aided  by  some 
able  pencil  I  hope  still  to  give  to  the  world 
some  fain  idea  of  an  object  which  at  this 
moment  fills  me  with  such  pleasure  and  as- 
tonishment." 

On  the  next  day  he  went  ahead,  alone, 
and  discovered  that  this  was  but  the  first  of 
a  long  series  of  cascades,  extending  for  many 
miles  up  the  canon.  It  was  a  day  of  excite- 
ment. While  returning  to  rejoin  his  party, 
he  suffered  his  gun  to  remain  for  a  time 
unloaded;  in  this  plight  he  was  surprised 
by  a  grizzly  bear.  Cut  off  from  any  other 
retreat,  he  was  forced  to  take  to  the  water, 
in  which  he  stood  to  the  depth  of  his  arm- 
pits, facing  the  brute  upon  the  bank  and 
preparing  to  defend  himself  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  struggle ;  but,  in  a  manner  wholly  out 
of  keeping  with  his  family  traditions,  the 
grizzly  was  content  to  walk  away  without 
attacking.  Proceeding  about  nightfall,  the 
young  officer  encountered  a  strange  beast, 
probably  a  wolverine,  which  showed  fight ; 
and  a  little  later  he  was  charged  by  three 


TO  THE  FALLS  OF  THE  MISSOURI    81 

bulls  from  a  herd  of  buffalo.  Upon  waking 
the  next  morning,  he  found  a  large  rattle- 
snake coiled  about  the  trunk  of  the  tree  be- 
neath which  he  had  slept. 


CHAPTER  VII 

OVER  THE   CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE 

A  MESSENGER  was  sent  back  to  Captain 
Clark,  detailing  what  had  been  discovered, 
and  giving  such  instructions  as  would  best 
enable  him  to  bring  up  the  boats.  It  is 
now  Captain  Clark's  turn  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  spirit  of  the  men  :  — 

"  June  15th.  .  .  .  Proceeded  with  great 
difficulty,  in  consequence  of  the  increased 
rapidity  of  the  current.  The  channel  is 
constantly  obstructed  by  rocks  and  danger- 
ous rapids.  During  the  whole  progress,  the 
men  are  in  the  water  holding  the  canoes,  and 
walking  on  sharp  rocks  and  round  stones, 
which  cut  their  feet  or  cause  them  to  fall. 
Rattlesnakes  are  so  numerous  that  the  men 
are  constantly  on  their  guard  against  being 
bitten  by  them ;  yet  they  bear  the  fatigues 
with  the  most  undiminished  cheerfulness." 

The  severest  labor  was  necessary  in  mak- 


OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE    83 

ing  a  portage  of  the  falls.  The  remaining 
periogue  was  abandoned,  the  canoes  only 
being  carried  on.  To  accomplish  this,  a 
large  cottonwood  tree  was  felled,  its  trunk 
being  cut  into  short  sections  to  serve  as 
wheels  for  improvised  carriages ;  the  mast 
of  the  periogue,  cut  into  lengths,  being  used 
as  axles.  Before  these  carriages  could  be 
utilized,  it  was  necessary  for  the  men  to 
carry  the  canoes  and  baggage  upon  their 
shoulders  to  the  level  plains  above  the  canon 
walls,  where  Captain  Clark  had  marked  out 
with  stakes  the  easiest  path  for  a  portage. 
This  was  a  trying  labor ;  and  the  portage 
itself  was  not  less  laborious.  The  journal 
says :  — 

"Here  [on  the  plains  above  the  river] 
they  all  repaired  their  moccasins,  and  put 
on  double  soles  to  protect  them  from  the 
prickly-pear,  and  from  the  sharp  points  of 
earth  which  have  been  formed  by  the  tram- 
pling of  the  buffalo  during  the  late  rains. 
This  of  itself  is  enough  to  render  the  port- 
age disagreeable  to  one  who  has  no  burden ; 
but  as  the  men  are  loaded  as  heavily  as 


84  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

their  strength  will  permit,  the  crossing  is 
really  painful.  Some  are  limping  with  the 
soreness  of  their  feet ;  others  are  scarcely 
able  to  stand  for  more  than  a  few  minutes, 
from  the  heat  and  fatigue.  They  are  all 
obliged  to  halt  and  rest  frequently;  at  al- 
most every  stopping-place  they  fall,  and 
most  of  them  are  asleep  in  an  instant ;  yet 
no  one  complains,  and  they  go  on  with 
great  cheerfulness." 

Notwithstanding  this  hardship,  Lewis's 
journal  entry  of  June  25th  has  this  fine 
bit:  — 

"  Such  as  were  able  to  shake  a  foot 
amused  themselves  in  dancing  on  the  green 
to  the  music  of  the  violin,  which  Cruzatte 
plays  extremely  well." 

Captain  Lewis  had  brought  along  in  the 
baggage  a  steel  skeleton  or  framework  for  a 
boat,  thirty-six  feet  in  length,  which  he  had 
planned  to  use  in  shallow  water.  It  was  to 
be  completed  by  stretching  over  the  steel 
ribs  a  covering  of  skins,  making  the  whole 
water-tight  by  any  means  that  might  be  at 
hand.  This  was  the  place  for  the  experi- 


OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE    85 

ment.  Much  time  was  spent  in  collecting 
and  curing  skins,  which,  when  fitted  to  the 
frame,  were  smeared  with  a  composition  of 
tallow,  beeswax,  and  charcoal.  This  failed, 
however.  As  soon  as  the  mixture  dried, 
it  fell  away  in  flakes,  and  the  vessel  was 
entirely  worthless.  But  Lewis  wrote  that 
"  the  boat  in  every  other  rispect  completely 
answers  my  most  sanguine  expectations "  ! 
Then  the  men  were  employed  for  some  time 
in  making  "  dugout "  canoes  from  cotton- 
wood  logs,  —  a  weary  labor,  considering  the 
tools  they  had.  Not  until  July  15th  was 
the  long  interruption  ended,  and  the  journey 
resumed. 

July  25th  Captain  Clark,  who  was  in  ad- 
vance of  the  main  party,  discovered  the 
three  forks  of  the  Missouri,  which  were 
named  the  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Gallatin 
rivers.  By  the  westernmost  of  these,  the 
Jefferson,  they  proceeded,  keeping  a  careful 
lookout  for  Indians. 

"  July  27th  [Mr.  Biddle's  edition  of  the 
journals].  We  are  now  very  anxious  to 
see  the  Snake  Indians.  After  advancing 


86  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

for  several  hundred  miles  into  this  wild  and 
mountainous  country,  we  may  soon  expect 
that  the  game  will  abandon  us.  With  no 
information  of  the  route,  we  may  be  unable 
to  find  a  passage  across  the  mountains  when 
we  reach  the  head  of  the  river  —  at  least, 
such  a  pass  as  will  lead  us  to  the  Columbia. 
Even  are  we  so  fortunate  as  to  find  a  branch 
of  that  river,  the  timber  which  we  have 
hitherto  seen  in  these  mountains  does  not 
promise  us  any  fit  to  make  canoes,  so  that 
our  chief  dependence  is  on  meeting  some 
tribe  from  whom  we  may  procure  horses. 
Our  consolation  is  that  this  southwest  branch 
can  scarcely  head  with  any  other  river  than 
the  Columbia  ;  and  if  any  nation  of  Indians 
can  live  in  the  mountains  we  are  able  to  en- 
dure as  much  as  they  can,  and  have  even 
better  means  of  procuring  subsistence." 

By  the  first  days  of  August  this  fear  for 
the  scarcity  of  game  had  become  a  reality ; 
they  were  getting  beyond  the  summer  range 
of  deer  and  buffalo,  which  had  been  their 
chief  reliance.  Through  their  long  season 
of  toil  they  had  been  plentifully  fed;  but 


OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE    87 

they  were  now  to  know  the  pains  of  hunger, 
and  the  ills  which  follow  upon  a  meagre 
diet.  The  hunters  were  daily  reporting 
increasingly  bad  luck  in  the  chase  ;  some 
days  would  yield  nothing ;  upon  other  days 
the  camp  would  heartily  welcome  an  owl,  an 
eagle,  or  a  bag  of  insignificant  small  birds 
of  any  sort,  or  even  a  wolf  —  anything  that 
had  flesh  on  its  bones. 

But  these  deprivations  did  not  one  whit 
abate  the  zeal  for  discovery.  About  this 
time  they  found  the  Jefferson  River  to  be 
formed  by  three  minor  streams,  to  which 
they  gave  the  names  of  Philosophy,  Philan- 
thropy, and  Wisdom  rivers,  "  in  commemo- 
ration of  those  cardinal  virtues  which  have 
so  eminently  marked  that  deservedly  seli- 
brated  character."  It  is  a  pity  to  record  that 
this  complimentary  intention  was  thwarted 
by  time ;  but  Philosophy  is  now  known  as 
Willow  Creek,  Wisdom  is  now  the  Big 
Hole,  and  Philanthropy  bears  the  hard 
name  of  Stinking  Water. 

Since  leaving  Fort  Mandan,  in  the  pre- 
ceding April,  they  had  seen  no  Indians. 


88  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

They  were  now  somewhat  reassured  by  Saca- 
jawea,  the  "  Bird  Woman,"  who  said  that 
they  were  nearing  the  site  of  her  old  home 
with  the  Snakes.  She  was  as  anxious  as 
they  for  a  meeting  with  her  people,  which 
she  told  them  must  soon  occur.  But  anxi- 
ety increased  as  the  days  passed,  and  on  the 
9th  of  August  Captain  Lewis,  accompanied 
by  several  of  the  men,  set  out  in  advance  of 
the  rest,  "  with  a  resolution  to  meet  some 
nation  of  Indians  before  they  returned,  how- 
ever long  they  might  be  separated  from  the 
party." 

Three  days  later  the  stream,  along  which 
their  route  had  lain  for  so  long,  was  shrunken 
to  such  a  width  that  one  of  the  men  was 
able  to  stand  with  his  feet  upon  opposite 
banks ;  and  in  that  posture  he  thanked  God 
that  he  had  lived  to  bestride  the  Missouri. 
Within  a  little  time  they  drank  from  the 
icy  spring  that  gave  the  rivulet  its  birth. 
They  then  stood  upon  the  crest  of  the  great 
Continental  Divide,  on  the  boundary  be- 
tween the  present  States  of  Montana  and 
Idaho.  They  had  run  the  mighty  Missouri 
to  its  lair ! 


OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE    89 

As  if  that  were  not  satisfaction  enough 
for  one  day,  they  went  forward  for  three 
fourths  of  a  mile,  and  there  "  reached  a 
handsome,  bold  creek  of  cold,  clear  water, 
running  to  the  westward."  Stooping,  they 
drank  of  the  waters  of  the  Lemhi  River, 
one  of  the  upper  branches  of  the  Columbia. 

On  the  following  day,  as  they  were  tra- 
cing the  course  of  this  stream,  they  observed 
two  women,  a  man,  and  some  dogs,  stationed 
upon  the  summit  of  a  hill  at  the  distance  of 
a  mile.  Captain  Lewis  advanced,  unarmed, 
displaying  a  flag.  The  women  retreated  at 
once  ;  and  the  man,  after  waiting  until 
Lewis  had  approached  to  within  a  hundred 
paces,  also  disappeared  in  the  thick  brush. 
After  following  the  trail  for  a  mile,  they 
came  suddenly  upon  three  Indian  women. 
One  of  these  made  her  escape ;  but  the 
others,  an  old  dame  and  a  child,  seated 
themselves  upon  the  ground  and  bowed  their 
heads,  as  though  expecting  to  be  put  to 
death  forthwith.  Captain  Lewis  advanced, 
took  the  older  woman  by  the  hand  and 
raised  her  to  her  feet,  at  the  same  time  dis- 


90  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

playing  the  white  skin  of  his  arm,  —  for 
exposure  had  tanned  his  face  and  hands  as 
dark  as  those  of  the  natives  themselves. 
He  then  gave  them  some  trinkets,  and  the 
other  woman  being  recalled,  he  painted 
the  faces  of  the  three  with  vermilion,  an 
act  understood  by  all  Indians  as  signifying 
pacific  intentions.  While  he  was  thus  en- 
gaged, sixty  mounted  Shoshone  warriors 
galloped  up,  armed  and  voicing  their  war- 
cry,  thinking  to  do  battle  with  Minnetaree 
foes,  for  whom  they  had  mistaken  the  whites. 
They  were  overjoyed  upon  discovering  the 
identity  of  their  visitors,  saluted  them  hear- 
tily, smoked  with  them  the  pipe  of  peace, 
and  offered  such  entertainment  as  they  had. 
They  were  without  food,  excepting  some  in- 
different cakes  made  from  service-berries  and 
choke-cherries,  dried  in  the  sun. 

To  secure  the  friendly  regard  of  these 
people,  Captain  Lewis  tried  to  induce  some 
of  them  to  return  with  him  to  the  point 
where  he  was  to  rejoin  Captain  Clark  and 
the  others,  saying  that  the  main  party  was 
bringing  merchandise  for  trade;  and  he 


OVER  THE  CONTINENTAL  DIVIDE   91 

was  at  last  successful  in  getting  a  goodly 
escort. 

When  lie  met  with  the  men  of  the  main 
party,  they  were  still  toiling  heavily  up  the 
narrow  channel  of  the  Missouri,  dragging 
the  canoes.  Sacajawea  at  once  recognized 
the  members  of  her  tribe.  A  woman  of 
the  band  ran  forward  to  meet  her,  and  they 
embraced  with  signs  of  extravagant  joy,  for 
they  had  been  playmates  in  childhood. 

"  While  Sacajawea  was  renewing  among 
the  women  the  friendships  of  former  days," 
says  the  journal,  "  Captain  Clark  went  on, 
and  was  received  by  Captain  Lewis  and  the 
chief,  who,  after  the  first  embraces  and  salu- 
tations were  over,  conducted  him  to  a  sort 
of  circular  tent  or  shade  of  willows.  Here 
he  was  seated  on  a  white  robe,  and  the 
chief  immediately  tied  in  his  hair  six  small 
shells  resembling  pearls,  an  ornament  highly 
valued  by  these  people,  who  procure  them  in 
the  course  of  trade  from  the  seacoast.  The 
moccasins  of  the  whole  party  were  then  taken 
off,  and  after  much  ceremony  the  smoking 
began.  After  this  the  conference  was  to 


92  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

be  opened.  Glad  of  an  opportunity  of  be- 
ing able  to  converse  more  intelligibly,  they 
sent  for  Sacajawea,  who  came  into  the  tent, 
sat  down,  and  was  beginning  to  interpret, 
when  in  the  person  of  Cameawait  (the  chief) 
she  recognized  her  brother.  She  instantly 
jumped  up  and  ran  and  embraced  him, 
throwing  over  him  her  blanket,  and  weeping 
profusely.  The  chief  was  himself  moved, 
though  not  in  the  same  degree.  After  some 
conversation  between  them,  she  resumed  her 
seat  and  attempted  to  interpret  for  us ;  but 
her  new  situation  seemed  to  overpower  her, 
and  she  was  frequently  interrupted  by  tears." 


CHAPTER 


THE      LAST      STAGE      OF     THE     WESTWARD 
JOURNEY 

SHOULD  a  water  route  be  taken  from  the 
Shoshone  villages,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
descend  the  Lemhi  to  Salmon  River;  the 
Salmon  would  conduct  them  to  the  Snake, 
and  that  to  the  Columbia.  But  they  were 
told  that  this  course  was  impracticable.  The 
Lemhi  flowed  in  an  ungovernable  torrent 
through  wild  canons  which  the  hardiest  ad- 
venturers from  this  tribe  had  never  succeeded 
in  passing.  The  description  given  by  the 
Indians  of  the  land  route  over  the  mountains 
was  hardly  more  reassuring.  The  easiest 
trail  to  be  found  would  be  rough  in  the  ex- 
treme, strewn  with  rocks  ;  besides,  snow 
would  soon  fall  upon  the  heights  of  the 
mountains,  burying  the  trail  many  feet  deep, 
and  perhaps  rendering  it  impassable.  The 
greatest  cause  for  uneasiness  lay  in  the  in- 


94  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

evitable  scarcity  of  food.  Even  should  a 
crossing  of  the  mountains  be  effected,  the 
men  would  be  obliged  to  subsist  for  many 
days  largely  or  wholly  upon  such  roots  as 
they  could  dig  by  the  way.  Of  the  provi- 
sions brought  from  St.  Louis, — flour  and 
canned  stuff,  — there  remained  barely  enough 
to  suffice  for  ten  days'  emergency  rations ; 
and  of  course  they  could  not  hope  to  find 
game  upon  the  barren  mountains,  particu- 
larly at  that  season  of  the  year.  They  were 
just  entering  upon  their  severest  trials. 

Captain  Clark  went  ahead  to  reconnoitre, 
and  found  that  the  Indians  had  rather  un- 
derstated the  difficulties  of  the  water  route. 
To  descend  the  Lemhi  was  entirely  out  of 
the  question.  Clark  dispatched  a  messenger 
to  Captain  Lewis,  telling  of  what  he  had 
discovered,  and  wrote  in  his  journal  (August 
24th) :  - 

"The  plan  I  stated  to  Captain  Lewis  if 
he  agrees  with  me  we  shall  adopt  is  to  pre- 
cure  as  many  horses  (one  for  each  man)  if 
possable  and  to  hire  my  present  guide  who  I 
sent  on  to  him  to  interegate  thro'  the  Intptr. 


THE  LAST  STAGE  95 

and  proceed  on  by  land  to  some  navagable 
part  of  the  Columbia  river,  or  to  the  Ocean, 
depending  on  what  provisions  we  can  Pre- 
cure  by  the  gun  aded  to  the  small  stock  we 
have  on  hand  depending  on  our  horses  as  the 
last  resort." 

While  he  was  writing  so  calmly  of  his 
plan,  he  and  his  men  were  suffering  from 
hunger,  having  only  a  meagre  supply  of  fish 
and  dried  berries.  A  day  or  two  later  he 
wrote :  — 

"  These  Indians,  to  whom  this  life  is  fa- 
miliar, seem  contented,  although  they  depend 
for  subsistence  on  the  scanty  provisions  of 
the  fishery.  But  our  men,  who  are  used  to 
hardships,  but  have  been  accustomed  to  have 
the  first  wants  of  Nature  regularly  supplied, 
feel  very  sensibly  their  wretched  situation ; 
their  strength  is  wasting  away ;  they  begin 
to  express  their  apprehensions  of  being  with- 
out food  in  a  country  perfectly  destitute  of 
any  means  of  supporting  life,  except  a  few 
fish." 

Horses  were  purchased  from  the  Shosho- 
nes,  and  the  men  were  employed  in  making 


96  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

pack-saddles.  As  there  was  no  timber  to  be 
obtained  near  by,  the  oars  were  cut  up  for 
boards,  and  these  were  fastened  into  form 
with  thongs  of  rawhide.  With  the  best  pro- 
vision that  could  be  made,  however,  it  was 
apparent  that  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
baggage  must  be  cached  and  left  behind. 
At  a  time  when  the  needs  of  the  men  would 
be  greatest,  they  were  obliged  to  provide 
themselves  with  least. 

The  Shoshones  were  hospitable  and  kindly 
folk.  Throughout  these  days  of  prepara- 
tion, the  women  were  engaged  in  making 
and  repairing  moccasins  and  clothing  for  the 
men,  and  the  fishermen  gave  to  them  a  good 
share  of  the  daily  catch.  Nor  was  the  kind- 
ness all  upon  the  one  side.  The  white  hunt- 
ers, with  their  guns,  had  greater  success 
than  the  Indians,  who  were  armed  only  with 
bows  and  arrows  and  lances.  Share  and 
share  alike  was  the  rule  in  the  village. 
Once  when  the  hunters  brought  in  a  deer, 
Captain  Clark  directed  that  it  be  given  to 
the  women  and  children,  who  were  in  an  ex- 
tremity of  hunger,  and  himself  went  supper- 
less  to  bed. 


THE  LAST  STAGE  97 

One  of  the  older  men  was  induced  to  ac- 
company them  as  a  guide.  By  the  middle  of 
September  they  were  deep  in  the  mountains, 
and  also  deep  in  peril  and  suffering.  The 
cold  had  a  depressing  effect  upon  the  men, 
overworked  and  underfed  as  they  were.  For 
several  days  they  got  along  somehow,  with 
a  few  odds  and  ends  of  small  game ;  but  on 
the  14th  of  September,  Captain  Clark's 
prevision  was  fulfilled,  and  they  were  re- 
duced to  supping  upon  the  flesh  of  one  of 
their  ponies.  Then  on  the  next  day,  — - 

"  September  15th.  Camped  near  an  old 
snow-bank,  some  of  which  was  melted,  in  the 
absence  of  water  ;  and  here  the  party  supped 
on  the  remains  of  the  colt  killed  yesterday. 
Our  only  game  to-day  was  two  pheasants  ; 
the  horses,  on  which  we  calculated  as  a  last 
resource,  began  to  fail  us,  for  two  of  them 
were  so  poor  and  worn  out  with  fatigue  that 
we  were  obliged  to  leave  them  behind. 

"  September  16th.  Three  hours  before 
daybreak  it  began  to  snow,  and  continued 
all  day,  so  that  by  evening  it  was  six  or  eight 
inches  deep.  This  covered  the  track  so  com- 


98  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

pletely  that  we  were  obliged  constantly  to 
halt  and  examine,  lest  we  should  lose  the 
route.  In  many  places  we  had  nothing  to 
guide  us,  except  the  branches  of  the  trees, 
which,  being  low,  had  been  rubbed  by  the 
burdens  of  the  Indian  horses.  .  .  .  Wet  to 
the  skin,  and  so  cold  that  we  were  anxious 
lest  our  feet  should  be  frozen,  as  we  had  only 
thin  moccasins  to  defend  them.  .  .  .  We 
camped  on  a  piece  of  low  ground,  thickly 
timbered,  but  scarcely  large  enough  to  per- 
mit us  to  lie  level.  We  had  now  made  thir- 
teen miles.  We  were  all  very  wet,  cold,  and 
hungry.  .  .  .  Were  obliged  to  kill  a  second 
colt  for  our  supper." 

Of  the  stock  of  portable  provisions  there 
remained  only  a  few  cans  of  soup  and  about 
twenty  pounds  of  bear's  oil ;  and  there  was 
"  no  living  creature  in  these  mountains,  ex- 
cept a  few  pheasants,  a  small  species  of  gray 
squirrel,  and  a  blue  bird  of  the  vulture  kind 
about  the  size  of  a  turtle-dove  or  jay ;  even 
these  are  difficult  to  shoot." 

Again  Captain  Clark  went  ahead.  For 
several  days  he  suffered  extremely  from  hun- 


THE  LAST  STAGE  99 

ger  and  exposure ;  but  on  the  20th  he  de- 
scended into  an  open  valley,  where  he  came 
upon  a  band  of  Nez  Perce  Indians,  who  gave 
him  food.  But  after  his  long  abstinence, 
when  he  ate  a  plentiful  meal  of  fish  his 
stomach  revolted,  and  for  several  days  he 
was  quite  ill. 

Matters  fared  badly  with  Captain  Lewis's 
party,  following  on  Clark's  trail.  On  the 
day  of  Clark's  departure,  they  could  not 
leave  their  night's  camp  until  nearly  noon, 
"because,  being  obliged  in  the  evening  to 
loosen  our  horses  to  enable  them  to  find  sub- 
sistence, it  is  always  difficult  to  collect  them 
in  the  morning.  .  .  .  We  were  so  fortunate 
as  to  kill  a  few  pheasants  and  a  prairie  wolf, 
which,  with  the  remainder  of  the  horse,  sup- 
plied us  with  one  meal,  the  last  of  our  provi- 
sions ;  our  food  for  the  morrow  being  wholly 
dependent  on  the  chance  of  our  guns."  Bear- 
ing heavy  burdens,  and  losing  much  time 
with  the  continued  straying  of  the  horses, 
they  made  but  indifferent  progress,  and  it 
was  not  until  the  22d  that  they  reached  the 
Nez  Perce  village  and  joined  Captain  Clark. 


100  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

Then  they,  too,  almost  to  a  man,  suffered 
severe  illness,  caused  by  the  unwonted  abun- 
dance of  food.  From  the  high  altitudes  and 
the  scant  diet  of  horseflesh  to  the  lower 
levels  of  the  valley  and  a  plentiful  diet  of 
fish  and  camass-root  was  too  great  a  change. 

Two  of  the  men  in  particular  had  cause  to 
remember  those  days.  They  had  been  sent 
back  to  find  and  bring  on  some  of  the  horses 
that  were  lost.  Failing  to  find  the  animals, 
after  a  long  search,  they  started  to  overtake 
their  companions.  They  had  no  provisions, 
nor  could  they  find  game  of  any  kind.  Death 
by  starvation  was  close  upon  them,  when 
they  found  the  head  of  one  of  the  horses  that 
had  been  killed  by  their  mates.  The  head 
had  been  thrown  aside  as  worthless ;  but  to 
these  two  it  was  a  veritable  godsend.  It 
was  at  once  roasted,  and  from  the  flesh  and 
gristle  of  the  lips,  ears,  and  cheeks  they  made 
a  meal  which  saved  their  lives. 

The  Nez  Perce  villages  were  situated  upon 
a  stream  called  the  Kooskooskee,  or  Clear- 
water,  which  the  Indians  said  was  navigable 
for  canoes  throughout  its  lower  lengths ;  so, 


THE  LAST  STAGE  101 

on  September  26th,  the  party  established  it- 
self at  a  point  upon  the  river  where  a  supply 
of  timber  could  be  had,  and  began  canoe- 
making.  In  this  they  adopted  the  Indian 
method  of  hollowing  large  logs  into  form  by 
means  of  fire ;  and  in  ten  days'  time  they 
had  made  five  serviceable  boats,  and  were 
ready  for  departure.  Meanwhile,  they  had 
relied  upon  the  Indians  for  a  daily  supply  of 
food,  and  this  had  made  a  considerable  re- 
duction of  their  stock  of  merchandise  for 
barter.  The  Nez  Perces  of  that  and  neigh- 
boring villages  kept  a  large  number  of  dogs, 
which  were  used  as  beasts  of  burden  and 
otherwise,  but  were  not  eaten.  The  travel- 
ers bought  some  of  these  for  food,  and 
found  them  palatable  and  nutritious;  but 
this  practice  excited  the  ridicule  of  the  sav- 
ages, who  gave  to  the  whites  the  name  Dog- 
Eaters,  —  an  odd  reversal  of  the  condition  of 
to-day.  The  men  were  proof  against  scorn, 
however,  so  long  as  the  supply  of  dog-meat 
held  out ;  and  when  they  were  ready  to  em- 
bark, they  bought  as  many  dogs  as  they 
could  carry,  to  be  eaten  on  the  voyage. 


102  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

There  was  no  reason  to  complain  of  the 
Nez  Perces.  There  was  a  noticeable  differ- 
ence, though,  between  the  people  of  the  sev- 
eral villages.  Some  were  generous  and  high- 
minded  to  a  degree  rarely  equaled  by  the 
members  of  any  race,  while  others  were 
shrewd  tradesmen  only.  All  seemed  worthy 
of  confidence,  which  was  well;  for  it  was 
necessary  to  put  confidence  in  them.  The 
horses  that  had  been  bought  from  the  Sho- 
shones  and  brought  across  the  mountains 
had  now  to  be  left  behind,  and  they  were 
surrendered  to  the  care  of  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal chiefs,  to  be  kept  by  him  until  they 
should  be  reclaimed  upon  the  return  from 
the  coast,  at  some  indefinite  time  in  the  fu- 
ture. He  discharged  this  trust  with  perfect 
fidelity.  Had  he  failed,  the  consequences 
would  have  been  disastrous. 

On  October  16th,  after  a  rapid  passage  of 
the  Kooskooskee,  the  party  entered  the  Colum- 
bia ;  and  from  that  point  to  the  Pacific  the 
journey  was  without  particular  adventure, 
save  for  the  difficulty  of  passing  numerous 
rapids  and  cascades.  Indian  villages  were 


THE  LAST  STAGE  103 

everywhere  upon  the  banks  ;  but  their  people 
were  of  a  very  low  order,  —  very  jackals  of 
humanity ;  dirty,  flea-bitten  packs,  whose 
physical  and  moral  constitutions  plainly 
showed  the  debilitating  effects  of  unnum- 
bered generations  of  fish-eating,  purposeless 
life.  Physical  and  moral  decency  usually  go 
hand  in  hand,  even  in  a  state  of  nature. 
The  Columbia  tribes  had  no  conception  of 
either ;  they  were  in  the  same  condition  then 
as  now,  mean-spirited,  and  strangers  to  all 
those  little  delicacies  of  behavior  that  had 
distinguished  the  mountain  tribes. 

The  passage  of  the  Narrows,  above  the 
Falls  of  the  Columbia,  trusting  to  their  fire- 
hollowed  logs,  demanded  much  daring  and 
self-possession.  Captain  Clark  wrote  :  — 

"  As  the  portage  of  our  canoes  over  this 
high  rock  would  be  impossible  with  our 
Strength,  and  the  only  danger  in  passing 
thro  those  narrows  was  the  whorls  and  swills 
arriseing  from  the  compression  of  the  water, 
and  which  I  thought  (as  also  our  principal 
waterman  Peter  Crusat)  by  good  stearing 
we  could  pass  down  safe,  accordingly  I 


104  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

deturmined  to  pass  through  this  place,  not 
with  standing  the  horred  appearance  of  this 
agitated  gut  swelling,  boiling  &  whorling  in 
every  direction  which  from  the  top  of  the 
rock  did  not  appear  as  bad  as  when  I  was 
in  it ;  however  we  passed  safe  to  the  aston- 
ishment of  the  Inds." 

At  other  times  they  were  not  so  successful 
in  this  sort  of  undertaking.  The  canoes 
were  often  overset  in  the  swift  water,  by 
being  caught  in  whirlpools  or  colliding  with 
rocks,  causing  great  inconvenience  and 
resulting  in  some  serious  losses  of  baggage. 
And  the  men  were  performing  this  arduous 
labor  upon  a  diet  of  dog-meat,  and  almost 
nothing  besides. 

No  matter  what  difficulties  presented  them- 
selves from  day  to  day,  the  officers  never 
lost  sight  of  the  chief  purpose  of  their  toils. 
The  journals  of  those  days  are  replete  with 
keen  notes  upon  the  country,  its  resources, 
and  its  people.  Soon  after  passing  the  Falls, 
there  were  to  be  seen  occasional  signs  of  pre- 
vious intercourse  between  the  Indians  and 
the  white  traders  who  had  visited  the  coast, 


THE  LAST  STAGE  105 

—  the  squaws  would  display  a  bit  of  colored 
cloth  in  their  costumes ;  a  few  of  the  men 
carried  ancient  guns,  and  occasionally  one  was 
decorated  with  a  ruinous  old  hat  or  the  re- 
mains of  a  sailor's  pea-jacket.  These  poor 
people  had  touched  the  hem  of  the  garment 
of  civilization,  and  had  felt  some  of  its 
meaner  virtue  pass  into  them.  They  showed 
daily  less  and  less  of  barbaric  manliness; 
they  were  becoming  from  day  to  day  more 
vicious,  thievish,  and  beggarly.  The  whites 
had  as  yet  given  them  nothing  worth  having, 
and  had  taught  them  nothing  worth  know- 
ing. This  was  but  natural,  considering  the 
character  of  those  who  had  visited  the  Co- 
lumbia region.  They  were  not  missionaries 
nor  philanthropists,  actuated  by  high  desires, 
but  traders  pure  and  simple,  with  no  thought 
but  gain,  and  no  scruples  about  means. 
They  were  not  different  from  the  pioneers  of 
trade  in  all  times  and  all  places. 

November  6th  there  was  a  meeting  with 
an  Indian  who  spoke  a  few  scrappy  words  of 
English ;  and  on  the  7th,  a  day  of  rain  and 
fog,  the  men  caught  a  far  glimpse  of  the 


106  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

Pacific,  .  .  .  "  that  ocean,  the  object  of  all 
our  labors,  the  reward  of  all  our  anxieties. 
This  cheering  view  exhilarated  the  spirits  of 
all  the  party,  who  were  still  more  delighted 
on  hearing  the  distant  roar  of  the  breakers." 
The  following  day,  as  the  boats  proceeded 
upon  the  waters  of  the  inlet,  the  waves  ran 
so  high  that  several  of  the  men  were  made 
sea-sick. 

After  eighteen  months  of  unparalleled  per- 
severance, the  westward  journey  was  done. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WINTER   ON   THE   COAST 

THEY  had  reached  the  coast  in  the  dismal 
rainy  season,  when  all  the  life  of  the  region 
was  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  the  year,  and  when 
comfort  was  hardly  to  be  found.  The  ex- 
treme bitterness  of  Eastern  winters  was  want- 
ing ;  but  the  bracing  tonic  effect  of  honest 
cold  was  also  denied  them.  Through  many 
months  they  were  to  suffer  from  an  uninter- 
rupted downpour  of  rain,  driven  before  the 
raw  sea-winds,  which  drenched  their  ardor 
and  made  work  of  any  sort  painful. 

For  a  long  time  they  were  unable  to  make 
further  progress,  because  of  the  persistent 
storms.  Their  canoes  had  not  been  designed 
for  service  in  tempestuous  open  water;  so 
they  were  compelled  to  camp  where  luck  left 
them,  having  no  shelter  from  the  weather, 
sodden  through  and  through,  hungry,  cold, 
many  of  them  ill  with  a  low  fever  bred  by 


108  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

exposure,  and  only  sustained  by  the  know- 
ledge that  they  were  at  last  upon  the  Pacific 
shore.  The  neighboring  Indians  were  prac- 
tically amphibious ;  no  stress  of  weather  could 
hold  them  in  check.  They  swarmed  about 
the  camp  at  all  times,  stealing,  begging, 
worrying  the  worn  spirits  of  the  men  into 
tatters.  Here,  for  the  first  time  since  leaving 
St.  Louis,  it  became  necessary  to  abandon 
conciliatory  friendliness,  and  to  offset  the 
native  insolence  with  sternness.  There  were 
no  fights,  for  the  Indians  were  too  low-born 
to  possess  fighting  courage ;  but  the  necessity 
for  constant  alertness  was  even  more  trying 
than  open  conflict. 

For  a  fortnight  the  men  were  engaged  in 
getting  acquainted  with  their  surroundings. 
The  hunters  made  long  trips  over  the  hills 
and  along  the  coast,  and  such  of  the  others 
as  could  be  spared  from  camp  went  tramping 
about  on  errands  of  discovery.  The  estab- 
lishment of  winter  quarters  was  perplexing ; 
but  on  the  24th  of  November,  after  a  consul- 
tation of  the  whole  party,  a  site  was  chosen 
several  miles  down  the  coast,  where  timber 


WINTER  ON  THE  COAST  109 

could  be  got  for  building  huts,  and  where, 
the  hunters  said,  game  was  nearest  at  hand. 

To  transport  the  baggage  through  the 
rough  breakers  was  a  tedious  and  dangerous 
undertaking.  The  men  had  to  wait  with 
patience  for  the  rare  hours  of  comparative 
calm,  making  headway  as  they  could,  and 
in  the  mean  time  eating  and  sleeping  on  the 
uncovered  earth.  Sickness  increased,  until 
none  of  the  party  was  wholly  free  from  it. 
Although  in  the  midst  of  plenty,  they  were 
suffering  from  hunger.  The  Indians  were 
besetting  them  with  offers  of  trade,  having 
large  stores  of  game,  fish,  and  other  provi- 
sions ;  but  their  cupidity  was  extreme,  and, 
on  account  of  the  low  state  of  the  treasury, 
which  must  be  conserved  against  many 
months  of  the  future,  but  few  purchases 
could  be  made  of  even  the  barest  necessities. 
When  their  own  hunters  were  unsuccessful, 
the  men  often  went  empty. 

The  unintentional  irony  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
letter  of  credit  now  became  apparent.  The 
trading  vessels  that  were  used  to  making 
yearly  visits  to  this  part  of  the  coast  from 


110  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

abroad  had  gone  away  for  the  winter,  and 
no  white  face  was  seen  through  all  those 
weary  months.  Considerable  comment  has 
been  passed  upon  the  failure  of  the  govern- 
ment to  anticipate  this  contingency  by  send- 
ing a  ship  to  this  point  to  meet  the  travelers 
and  relieve  their  inevitable  distress.  This 
failure  could  hardly  have  been  the  result  of 
oversight ;  most  probably  it  arose  from  the 
wish  of  the  government  to  avoid  any  appear- 
ance of  meddling  in  international  affairs. 
The  Louisiana  Territory  extended  only  so 
far  west  as  the  Rocky  Mountains  :  so,  strictly 
speaking,  the  expedition  had  no  defensible 
right  upon  the  coast  under  Federal  patron- 
age. There  might  well  have  been  serious 
consequences  had  a  vessel  under  our  flag 
appeared  in  those  waters,  with  such  a  mis- 
sion. However  that  may  be,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  no  aid  was  sent,  and  the  men 
were  thrown  entirely  upon  their  ability  to 
care  for  themselves.  The  journals  show  how 
they  managed. 

"  November  28th.  It  is  now  impossible  to 
proceed  with  so  rough  a  sea.     We  therefore 


WINTER  ON  THE  COAST  ill 

sent  several  of  the  men  to  hunt,  and  the  rest 
of  us  remained  during  the  day  in  a  situation 
the  most  cheerless  and  uncomfortable.  On 
this  little  neck  of  land  we  are  exposed,  with 
a  miserable  covering  which  does  not  deserve 
the  name  of  shelter,  to  the  violence  of  the 
winds ;  all  our  bedding  and  stores,  as  well  as 
our  bodies,  are  completely  wet ;  our  clothes 
are  rotting  with  constant  exposure,  and  we 
have  no  food  except  the  dried  fish  brought 
from  the  falls.  The  hunters  all  returned 
hungry  and  drenched  with  rain,  having 
seen  neither  deer  nor  elk,  and  the  swan  and 
brant  were  too  shy  to  be  approached." 

Day  after  day  they  subsisted  upon  this 
dried  fish,  mixed  with  sea-water.  Captain 
Clark  nearly  lost  his  admirable  poise.  On 
the  first  day  of  December  he  wrote :  — 

"24  days  since  we  arrived  at  the  Great 
Western  (for  I  cannot  say  Pacific)  Ocian 
as  I  have  not  seen  one  pacific  day  since  my 
arrival  in  this  vicinity,  and  its  waters  are 
forming  and  petially  breake  with  emence 
waves  on  the  sands  and  rockey  coasts,  tem- 
pestous  and  horiable." 


112  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

Two  days  later  one  of  the  hunters  killed 
an  elk  —  the  first  to  be  secured  on  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  mountains ;  and  that  was  a 
holiday  in  consequence,  though  the  animal 
was  lean  and  poor  enough,  and  hardly  fit  to 
be  eaten. 

Curiously,  the  greatest  trial  of  that  life 
was  the  absence  of  real  hazard.  Adventure 
and  danger,  which  make  discomfort  tolerable 
to  such  men  as  they,  were  altogether  want- 
ing ;  in  their  place  was  nothing  but  a  dull, 
dead  level  of  endurance,  an  expenditure  of 
time  and  strength  to  no  apparent  end. 

But  by  the  middle  of  December  the  site 
of  winter  quarters  was  gained,  and  then  the 
log  huts  began  to  take  form.  The  men 
needed  this  consolation.  Under  date  of  the 
14th,  the  journal  says :  — 

"  Notwithstanding  that  scarcely  a  man  has 
been  dry  for  many  days,  the  sick  are  recov- 
ering. ...  It  had  been  cloudy  all  day,  at 
night  began  to  rain,  and  as  we  had  no  cover 
we  were  obliged  to  sit  up  the  greater  part 
of  the  night ;  for  as  soon  as  we  lay  down  the 
rain  would  come  under  us  and  compel  us  to 


WINTER  ON  THE  COAST  113 

"December  17th.  It  rained  all  night, 
and  this  morning  there  was  a  high  wind; 
hail  as  well  as  rain  fell ;  and  on  the  top  of 
a  mountain  about  ten  miles  to  the  southeast 
of  us  we  observed  some  snow.  The  greater 
part  of  our  stores  is  wet ;  our  leathern  tent 
is  so  rotten  that  the  slightest  touch  makes  a 
rent  in  it,  and  it  will  now  scarcely  shelter 
a  spot  large  enough  for  our  beds.  We  were 
all  busy  in  finishing  the  insides  of  the  huts. 
The  after  part  of  the  day  was  cool  and  fair. 
But  this  respite  was  of  very  short  duration  ; 
for  all  night  it  continued  raining  and  snow- 
ing alternately,  and  in  the  morning,  Decem- 
ber 18th,  we  had  snow  and  hail  till  twelve 
o'clock,  after  which  it  changed  to  rain.  The 
air  now  became  cool  and  disagreeable,  the 
wind  high  and  unsettled ;  so  that,  being 
thinly  dressed  in  leather,  we  were  able  to  do 
very  little  on  the  houses." 

"December  20th.  A  succession  of  rain 
and  hail  during  the  night.  At  10  o'clock  it 
cleared  off  for  a  short  time,  but  the  rain 
soon  recommenced.  We  now  covered  in 
four  of  our  huts.  Three  Indians  came  in  a 


114  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

canoe  with  mats,  roots,  and  the  berries  of  the 
sacacommis.  These  people  proceed  with  a 
dexterity  and  finesse  in  their  bargains  which, 
if  they  have  not  learned  it  from  their  foreign 
visitors,  may  show  how  nearly  allied  is  the 
cunning  of  savages  to  the  little  arts  of  traffic. 
They  begin  by -asking  double  or  treble  the 
value  of  what  they  have  to  sell,  and  lower 
their  demand  in  proportion  to  the  greater 
or  less  degree  of  ardor  or  knowledge  of  the 
purchaser,  who,  with  all  his  management,  is 
not  able  to  procure  an  article  for  less  than 
its  real  value,  which  the  Indians  perfectly 
understand." 

"  December  24th.  The  whole  stock  of 
meat  being  now  spoiled,  our  pounded  fish 
became  again  our  chief  dependence.  It 
rained  constantly  all  day,  but  we  still  contin- 
ued working,  and  at  last  moved  into  our 
huts." 

"  December  25th.  We  were  awaked  at 
daylight  by  a  discharge  of  firearms,  which 
was  followed  by  a  song  from  the  men,  as  a 
compliment  to  us  on  the  return  of  Christ- 
mas, which  we  have  always  been  accustomed 


WINTER  ON  THE  COAST  115 

to  observe  as  a  day  of  rejoicing.  After 
breakfast  we  divided  our  remaining  stock  of 
tobacco,  which  amounted  to  twelve  carrots, 
into  two  parts ;  one  of  which  we  distributed 
among  such  of  the  men  as  make  use  of  it, 
making  a  present  of  a  handkerchief  to  the 
others.  The  remainder  of  the  day  was 
passed  in  good  spirits,  though  there  was 
nothing  in  our  situation  to  excite  much 
gaiety.  The  rain  confined  us  to  the  house, 
and  our  only  luxuries  in  honor  of  the  season 
were  some  poor  elk,  a  few  roots,  and  some 
spoiled  pounded  fish." 

The  first  of  January  witnessed  the  com- 
pletion of  the  rude  fortification,  which  was 
named  Fort  Clatsop,  in  honor  of  one  of  the 
better  of  the  tribes  near  by,  —  a  tribe  whose 
members,  according  to  Captain  Clark, "  some- 
times washed  their  hands  and  faces."  Then, 
the  labor  of  building  at  an  end,  life  settled 
into  mere  routine.  The  hunters  were  con- 
stantly engaged.  No  matter  what  fortune 
they  had,  they  could  not  abate  their  industry, 
for  the  persistent  moisture  made  it  impos- 
sible to  keep  the  meat  from  spoiling.  Other 


116  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

men  moved  down  to  the  shore,  where  they 
employed  themselves  in  boiling  sea-water,  to 
obtain  a  supply  of  salt ;  and  others  were 
busy  hobnobbing  with  the  natives,  practic- 
ing such  wiles  as  they  were  masters  of,  in 
the  effort  to  obtain  small  supplies  of  edible 
roots. 

The  officers  were  engaged,  as  at  Fort 
Mandan  the  previous  winter,  bringing  up 
their  journals  and  copying  them  out,  and  in 
collecting  data  for  a  report  upon  the  natural 
history,  ethnology,  and  trade  of  the  coast. 
All  were  living  by  chance.  Sometimes  they 
had  plenty;  at  other  times  they  were  re- 
duced to  extremities.  Once  they  thought 
themselves  very  fortunate  in  being  able  to 
trade  for  a  quantity  of  whale  blubber  which 
the  Indians  had  taken  from  a  dead  carcass 
washed  ashore  near  by.  Captain  Clark  wrote 
that  he  "  thanked  providence  for  driving  the 
whale  to  us ;  and  think  him  much  more  kind 
to  us  than  he  was  to  Jonah  having  sent  this 
monster  to  be  swallowed  by  us,  in  sted  of 
swallowing  of  us  as  Jonah's  did." 


CHAPTER  X 

HOMEWARD  :    IN   THE   MOUNTAINS 

BEFORE  the  end  of  January,  plans  were 
being  formed  for  the  homeward  journey. 
The  men  were  dressing  skins  and  making 
them  into  clothing  and  moccasins,  and  curing 
such  meat  as  they  could  get,  so  as  to  be  able 
to  vary  the  fish  diet  of  the  Columbia.  In 
February  Captain  Clark  completed  a  map  of 
the  country  between  Fort  Mandan  and  Fort 
Clatsop,  and  sketched  a  plan  he  had  con- 
ceived for  shortening  the  route  from  the 
mountains  east  of  the  Nez  Perce  villages  to 
the  Falls  of  the  Missouri.  His  sagacity  in 
this  was  marvelous ;  when  it  came  to  the 
point,  his  plan  was  found  to  be  perfectly 
practicable,  cutting  off  580  miles  from  the 
most  difficult  part  of  the  way.  He  was  a 
born  geographer ;  indeed,  his  was  a  catholic, 
a  cosmopolitan  genius. 

The  greatest  cause  for  uneasiness  now  lay 


118  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

in  the  depleted  condition  of  the  stock  of 
merchandise  intended  for  trade.  On  March 
16th,  when  preparations  for  departure  were 
nearing  completion,  there  is  this  entry  in  the 
journals :  — 

"All  the  small  merchandise  we  possess 
might  be  tied  up  in  a  couple  of  handker- 
chiefs. The  rest  of  our  stock  in  trade  con- 
sists of  six  blue  robes,  one  scarlet  ditto,  five 
robes  which  we  have  made  out  of  our  large 
United  States  flag,  a  few  old  clothes  trimmed 
with  ribbons,  and  one  artillerist's  uniform 
coat  and  hat,  which  probably  Captain  Clark 
will  never  wear  again.  We  have  to  depend 
entirely  upon  this  meagre  outfit  for  the  pur- 
chase of  such  horses  and  provisions  as  it  will 
be  in  our  power  to  obtain,  —  a  scant  depend- 
ence, indeed,  for  such  a  journey  as  is  before 
us." 

It  was  hard  to  persuade  the  coast  Indians 
to  sell  the  canoes  that  were  necessary  for  the 
first  part  of  the  trip.  The  canoe  afforded 
these  people  their  chief  means  for  getting  a 
livelihood,  and  was  valued  accordingly.  A 
boat  and  a  woman  were,  by  common  consent, 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    119 

placed  upon  an  equality  of  value,  —  certainly 
not  an  overestimate  of  the  worth  of  the 
canoe,  if  one  laid  aside  chivalry  and  regarded 
the  squaws  dispassionately.  When  Captain 
Lewis  was  compelled  to  give  a  half -carrot  of 
tobacco  and  a  laced  coat  in  exchange  for  one 
of  the  little  craft,  he  observed  that  he  con- 
sidered himself  defrauded  of  the  coat.  No 
doubt  he  had  in  mind  the  native  scale  of 
values. 

"  Many  reasons  had  determined  us  to  re- 
main at  Fort  Clatsop  until  the  first  of  April," 
says  the  journal  entry  of  March  22d.  "  Be- 
sides the  want  of  fuel  in  the  Columbian 
plains,  and  the  impracticability  of  passing 
the  mountains  before  the  beginning  of  June, 
we  were  anxious  to  see  some  of  the  foreign 
traders,  from  whom,  by  means  of  our  ample 
letters  of  credit,  we  might  have  recruited 
our  exhausted  stores  of  merchandise.  About 
the  middle  of  March,  however,  we  had  be- 
come seriously  alarmed  for  the  want  of  food ; 
the  elk,  our  chief  dependence,  had  at  length 
deserted  their  usual  haunts  in  our  neighbor- 
hood and  retreated  to  the  mountains.  We 


120  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

were  too  poor  to  purchase  other  food  from 
the  Indians,  so  that  we  were  sometimes  re- 
duced, notwithstanding  all  the  exertions  of 
our  hunters,  to  a  single  day's  provisions  in 
advance.  The  men,  too,  whom  the  constant 
rains  and  confinement  had  rendered  un- 
healthy, might,  we  hoped,  be  benefited  by 
leaving  the  coast  and  resuming  the  exercise  of 
travel.  We  therefore  determined  to  leave 
Fort  Clatsop,  ascend  the  river  slowly,  con- 
sume the  month  of  March  in  the  woody 
country,  where  we  hoped  to  find  subsistence, 
and  in  this  way  reach  the  plains  about  the 
first  of  April,  before  which  time  it  will  be 
impossible  to  attempt  to  cross  them." 

The  next  day  the  canoes  were  loaded,  and 
in  the  afternoon  the  party  took  leave  of  Fort 
Clatsop. 

Though  the  return  along  the  Columbia 
was  less  fraught  with  danger  than  the  de- 
scent, it  was  much  more  toilsome.  Going 
down,  the  men  had  taken  large  chances  in 
shooting  the  rapids ;  but  coming  back,  port- 
age had  to  be  made  of  all  such  places.  For 
this  work  horses  were  absolutely  necessary ; 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    121 

and  to  get  a  few  of  these  from  the  Indians, 
who  saw  their  chance  for  gain,  brought  the 
expedition  to  a  state  verging  upon  downright 
bankruptcy.  Enough  horses  were  secured, 
however,  to  enable  them  to  pass  step  by  step 
over  the  obstructions  in  their  way,  until  at 
last  the  Great  Falls  were  left  behind.  From 
that  point  they  meant  to  proceed  by  land ; 
and  as  the  canoes  were  of  no  further  use, 
they  were  cut  up  for  firewood,  which  could 
not  be  otherwise  obtained  on  the  treeless 
plains. 

Thus  far  there  had  been  no  adventures 
of  note,  except  such  as  grew  out  of  the  ill- 
nature  and  rascality  of  the  Indians,  who 
swarmed  upon  the  banks  of  the  stream, 
where  they  were  assembled  for  their  annual 
salmon-fishing.  More  than  once  the  officers 
found  it  necessary  to  use  harsh  measures,  in 
dealing  with  cases  of  theft.  In  striking 
contrast  to  these  experiences  was  the  meeting 
with  the  Walla- Wallas,  a  short  distance 
above  the  Falls.  These  people  freely  gave 
to  the  travelers  from  their  own  scant  supply 
of  firewood  and  food;  and  the  chief  pre- 


122  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

sented  to  Captain  Clark  a  superb  white  horse, 
a  kindness  which  Clark  requited  by  the  gift 
of  his  artillerist's  sword.  After  leaving  this 
hospitable  village,  the  party  was  overtaken 
by  three  young  men,  Walla- Wallas,  who  had 
come  a  day's  journey  in  order  to  restore  a 
steel  trap,  inadvertently  left  behind. 

May  5th  they  came  again  to  the  lower 
villages  of  the  Nez  Perces,  where  they  had 
stopped  in  the  preceding  October  to  make 
their  dugout  canoes.  By  this  time  they  were 
practically  destitute  of  all  resources  save 
those  of  the  mind.  To  secure  food,  they 
were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  practice  of 
medicine !  Luckily,  the  scheme  worked. 
Their  patients  were  almost  legion;  their 
fame  spread  like  a  prairie  fire.  Nor  was 
this  mere  quackery.  All  of  the  Indians  of 
the  Western  slope  were  more  or  less  afflicted 
with  rheumatism,  inflammation  of  the  eyes, 
and  other  ills  incident  to  an  outdoor  life  in 
a  humid  climate ;  and  the  two  officers,  in  the 
course  of  preparing  themselves  for  their 
errand  across  the  continent,  had  learned  to 
use  some  of  the  simple  remedies  of  the  day. 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    123 

In  some  cases  they  gave  relief  to  the  suf- 
ferers ;  in  others,  wrote  Captain  Lewis,  "  we 
conscientiously  abstained  from  giving  them 
any  but  harmless  medicines ;  and  as  we 
cannot  possibly  do  harm,  our  prescriptions, 
though  unsanctioned  by  the  faculty,  may  be 
useful,  and  are  entitled  to  some  remunera- 
tion." They  were  thus  enabled  to  secure 
the  day's  food,  and  to  provide  a  little  against 
the  morrow.  But  severe  trials  yet  remained. 

"  May  6th  [after  taking  up  the  trail] . 
...  It  was  now  so  difficult  to  procure 
anything  to  eat  that  our  chief  dependence 
was  on  the  horse  which  we  received  yester- 
day for  medicine ;  but  to  our  great  disap- 
pointment he  broke  the  rope  by  which  he 
was  confined,  made  his  escape,  and  left  us 
supperless  in  the  rain." 

Upon  falling  in  again  (on  May  8th)  with 
the  band  of  Nez  Perces  in  whose  care  they 
had  left  their  horses  in  the  autumn,  they 
found  the  animals  to  be  now  much  scattered 
over  the  plain,  where  they  had  been  turned 
out  to  graze ;  but  the  chief  promised  to  have 
them  collected  at  once.  He  said  further 


124  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

that  his  people  had  been  made  aware  of  the 
approach  of  the  travelers,  and  of  their  being 
without  provisions,  and  that  he  had  a  few 
days  before  dispatched  several  of  his  men  to 
meet  them,  bearing  supplies ;  but  this  relief 
party  had  taken  another  trail,  and  so  missed 
a  meeting. 

This  old  chief  and  his  people  showed  them- 
selves to  be  genuine  friends.  After  two  or 
three  days,  when  their  guests  had  explained 
their  situation,  and  offered  to  exchange  a 
horse  in  poor  flesh  for  one  that  was  fatter 
and  more  fit  to  be  eaten,  the  chief  was 
deeply  offended  by  this  conception  of  his 
hospitality,  remarking  that  his  tribe  had 
an  abundance  of  young  horses,  of  which  the 
men  might  use  as  many  as  they  chose  ;  and 
some  of  the  warriors  soon  brought  up  two 
young  and  fat  animals,  for  which  they  would 
accept  nothing  in  return. 

To  hold  speech  with  this  tribe  was  awk- 
ward. "  In  the  first  place,"  wrote  Captain 
Lewis,  "  we  spoke  in  English  to  one  of  our 
men,  who  translated  it  into  French  to  Cha- 
boneau ;  he  interpreted  it  to  his  wife  in  the 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS   125 

Minnetaree  language ;  she  then  put  it  into 
Shoshone,  and  a  young  Shoshone  prisoner 
explained  it  to  the  Chopunnish  in  their 
own  dialect."  But  the  common  impulses 
of  humanity  found  expression  in  more  di- 
rect ways,  without  need  for  interpretation. 
Whether  as  friends  or  foes,  the  Nez  Perces 
have  always  been  celebrated  for  their  gene- 
rosity ;  and  in  those  hard  days  they  seemed 
to  be  just  in  their  element.  They  could  not 
do  enough  to  show  their  good  will. 

The  expedition  went  into  camp  at  a  little 
distance  from  this  village,  waiting  for  their 
horses  to  be  assembled,  and  waiting  for  the 
melting  of  the  mountain  snows,  which  now 
rendered  further  progress  impossible.  In 
this  camp  they  remained  until  June  10, 
unwilling  to  impose  upon  their  hosts,  and 
hence  were  in  sore  straits  most  of  the  time. 

"  May  21st.  On  parceling  out  the  stores, 
the  stock  of  each  man  was  found  to  consist 
of  only  one  awl  and  one  knitting-pin,  one 
half  ounce  of  vermilion,  two  needles,  and 
about  a  yard  of  ribbon  —  a  slender  means  of 
bartering  for  our  subsistence ;  but  the  men 


126  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

have  been  so  much  accustomed  to  privations 
that  now  neither  the  want  of  meat  nor  the 
scanty  funds  of  the  party  excites  the  least 
anxiety  among  them." 

Again  they  were  reduced  to  a  diet  of  wild 
roots ;  but  the  amiable  old  chief  discovered 
their  situation,  paid  them  a  visit,  and  in- 
formed them  that  most  of  the  horses  run- 
ning at  large  upon  the  surrounding  plain 
belonged  to  the  people  of  his  village,  insist- 
ing that  if  the  party  stood  in  want  of  meat, 
they  would  use  these  animals  as  their  own. 
Surely  the  noble  Nez  Perces  deserved  better 
at  the  hands  of  our  government  than  they 
got  in  later  years.  The  benefits  they  were 
so  ready  to  confer  in  time  of  need  were 
shamelessly  forgotten. 

June  1st  two  of  the  men,  who  had  been 
sent  to  trade  with  the  Indians  for  a  supply 
of  roots,  and  who  carried  all  that  remained 
of  the  merchandise,  had  the  misfortune  to 
lose  it  in  the  river.  Then,  says  the  journal, 
"  we  created  a  new  fund,  by  cutting  off  the 
buttons  from  our  clothes  and  preparing  some 
eye- water  and  basilicon,  to  which  were  added 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    127 

some  phials  and  small  tin  boxes  in  which  we 
had  once  kept  phosphorus.  With  this  cargo 
two  men  set  out  in  the  morning  to  trade, 
and  brought  home  three  bushels  of  roots 
and  some  bread,  which,  in  our  situation,  was 
as  important  as  the  return  of  an  East  India 
ship." 

"  June  8th.  .  .  .  Several  foot-races  were 
run  between  our  men  and  the  Indians ;  the 
latter,  who  are  very  active  and  fond  of  these 
races,  proved  themselves  very  expert,  and 
one  of  them  was  as  fleet  as  our  swiftest  run- 
ners. After  the  races  were  over,  the  men 
divided  themselves  into  two  parties  and 
played  prison  base,  an  exercise  which  we 
are  desirous  of  encouraging,  before  we  begin 
the  passage  over  the  mountains,  as  several 
of  the  men  are  becoming  lazy  from  inac- 
tion." 

On  the  10th  they  left  this  camp  and 
moved  eastward,  drawing  slowly  toward  the 
mountains,  and  keeping  an  anxious  lookout 
for  hunting  grounds.  In  this  quest  they 
were  not  successful ;  all  the  wild  creatures 
round  about  had  suffered  much  in  the  long 


128  LEWIS  AND  CLARK  ' 

winter,  and  the  few  they  were  able  to  secure 
were  so  much  reduced  in  flesh  as  to  be  unfit 
for  food.  They  could  only  push  forward. 
On  the  15th  they  came  to  the  foothills  of 
the  Bitter  Eoot  Eange;  and  on  the  17th 
they  were  well  into  its  heart,  ascending  the 
main  ridges.  But  here  they  soon  discovered 
the  impossibility  of  proceeding  in  their  situa- 
tion. The  snow  lay  everywhere  to  a  depth 
of  twelve  or  fifteen  feet,  completely  hiding 
the  trail.  To  delay  until  the  snow  melted 
would  defeat  the  intention  of  getting  to  St. 
Louis  before  another  winter.  To  go  on  was 
to  risk  losing  themselves  altogether.  As 
they  stated  the  question  to  themselves, 
frankly,  it  seemed  like  a  game  of  tossing 
pennies,  with  Fate  imposing  the  familiar 
catch,  "  Heads,  I  win  ;  tails,  you  lose." 

"  We  halted  at  the  sight  of  this  new  dif- 
ficulty," says  Captain  Lewis.  "  .  .  .  We 
now  found  that  as  the  snow  bore  our  horses 
very  well,  traveling  was  infinitely  easier  than 
it  was  last  fall,  when  the  rocks  and  fallen 
timber  had  so  much  obstructed  our  march." 
But  with  the  best  of  fortune,  at  least  five 


HOMEWARD:  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    129 

days  must  be  spent  in  getting  through  this 
dreadful  fastness.  Unfamiliar  as  they  were 
with  the  route,  the  chances  against  getting 
through  at  all  were  tenfold.  "  During  these 
five  days,  too,  we  have  no  chance  of  finding 
either  grass  or  underwood  for  our  horses,  the 
snow  being  so  deep.  To  proceed,  therefore^ 
under  such  circumstances,  would  be  to  hazard 
our  being  bewildered  in  the  mountains,  and 
to  insure  the  loss  of  our  horses  ;  even  should 
we  be  so  fortunate  as  to  escape  with  our 
lives,  we  might  be  obliged  to  abandon  our 
papers  and  collections.  It  was,  therefore, 
decided  not  to  venture  any  further ;  to  de- 
posit here  all  the  baggage  and  provisions 
for  which  we  had  no  immediate  use;  and, 
reserving  only  subsistence  for  a  few  days,  to 
return  while  our  horses  were  yet  strong  to 
some  spot  where  we  might  live  by  hunting, 
till  a  guide  could  be  procured  to  conduct  us 
across  the  mountains." 

Just  at  that  moment  they  were  almost  in 
despair.  The  next  day  two  of  the  best  men 
turned  back  to  the  Nez  Perce  villages,  to 
endeavor  to  procure  a  guide,  while  the  main 


130  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

party  moved  down  toward  the  plains,  sup- 
porting life  meagrely,  waiting  for  something 
to  turn  up.  They  were  quite  powerless 
until  help  of  some  kind  should  come  to 
them. 

To  their  infinite  relief,  the  messengers 
returned  in  a  few  days,  bringing  guides, 
who  undertook  to  conduct  the  party  to  the 
Falls  of  the  Missouri,  for  which  service  they 
were  to  be  recompensed  by  two  guns.  Un- 
der their  care  a  fresh  start  was  made,  and  by 
nightfall  of  the  26th,  passing  over  a  perilous 
trail,  they  had  found  a  small  bit  of  ground 
from  which  the  snow  had  melted,  leaving 
exposed  a  growth  of  young  grass,  where  the 
horses  had  pasturage  for  the  night. 

"  June  27th.  .  .  .  From  this  lofty  spot  we 
have  a  commanding  view  of  the  surrounding 
mountains,  which  so  completely  enclose  us 
that,  though  we  have  once  passed  them  [in 
the  preceding  September],  we  almost  despair 
of  ever  escaping  from  them  without  the  as- 
sistance of  the  Indians.  .  .  .  Our  guides 
traverse  this  trackless  region  with  a  kind  of 
instinctive  sagacity ;  they  never  hesitate, 


HOMEWAKD:  INTHE  MOUNTAINS    131 

they  are  never  embarrassed ;  and  so  undeviat- 
ing  is  their  step,  that  wherever  the  snow  has 
disappeared,  for  even  a  hundred  paces,  we 
find  the  summer  road." 

On  the  29th  they  descended  from  the 
snowy  mountains  to  the  main  branch  of  the 
Kooskooskee,  where  they  found  the  body  of 
a  deer  that  had  been  left  for  them  by  the 
hunters,  who  were  working  in  advance, — 
"  a  very  seasonable  addition  to  our  food  ;  for 
having  neither  meat  nor  oil,  we  were  re- 
duced to  a  diet  of  roots,  without  salt  or  any 
other  addition." 

The  first  day  of  July  found  them  en- 
camped at  the  mouth  of  Traveler's  Kest 
Creek,  where  all  mountain  trails  converged. 
It  was  from  this  place  that  Captain  Clark's 
plan  for  a  shorter  route  to  the  Falls  of  the 
Missouri  was  to  be  put  into  execution.  But 
that  was  not  all  that  lay  in  their  minds. 

"  We  now  formed  the  following  plan  of 
operations :  Captain  Lewis,  with  nine  men, 
is  to  pursue  the  most  direct  route  to  the  Falls 
of  the  Missouri,  where  three  of  his  party 
are  to  be  left  to  prepare  carriages  for  trans- 


132  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

porting  the  baggage  and  canoes  across  the 
portage.  With  the  remaining  six,  he  will 
ascend  Maria's  River  to  explore  the  country 
and  ascertain  whether  any  branch  of  it 
reaches  as  far  north  as  latitude  50°,  after 
which  he  will  descend  that  river  to  its  mouth. 
The  rest  of  the  men  will  accompany  Captain 
Clark  to  the  head  of  Jefferson  River,  which 
Sergeant  Ordway  and  a  party  of  nine  men 
will  descend,  with  the  canoes  and  other  arti- 
cles deposited  there.  Captain  Clark's  party, 
which  will  then  be  reduced  to  ten,  will  pro- 
ceed to  the  Yellowstone,  at  its  nearest  ap- 
proach to  the  Three  Forks  of  the  Missouri. 
There  he  will  build  canoes,  go  down  that 
river  with  seven  of  his  party,  and  wait  at  its 
mouth  till  the  rest  of  the  party  join  him. 
Sergeant  Pryor,  with  two  others,  will  then 
take  the  horses  by  land  to  the  Mandans. 
From  that  nation  he  will  go  to  the  British 
posts  on  the  Assiniboin  with  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Henry,  to  procure  his  endeavors  to  prevail 
on  some  of  the  Sioux  chiefs  to  accompany 
him  to  Washington." 

It  is  hard  to  understand  that  indomitable 


HOMEWARD:    IN  THE  MOUNTAINS    133 

humor.  Here  they  were,  just  freed  from 
imminent  disaster,  worn,  half-starved,  beg- 
gared, yet  bobbing  up  like  corks  from  the 
depths,  and  forthwith  making  calm  prepara- 
tions for  fresh  labors  of  a  grave  kind. 


CHAPTER  XI 

EECROSSING  THE   DIVIDE 

BY  the  route  made  famous  as  Lewis  and 
Clark's  Pass,  Captain  Lewis's  party  on  July 
7th  recrossed  the  Great  Divide  that  sepa- 
rates the  Atlantic  from  the  Pacific,  and  upon 
the  next  day  they  again  ate  of  the  flesh  of 
the  buffalo.  On  the  16th  they  were  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Missouri ;  and  two  days  later 
they  reached  the  mouth  of  Maria's  Eiver, 
which  they  were  to  explore. 

Ten  days  were  spent  in  this  exploration, 
until  further  progress  was  stopped,  on  the 
26th,  by  an  encounter  with  a  band  of  the 
dreaded  Minnetarees  of  Fort  de  Prairie,  who 
had  wrought  such  havoc  among  the  Shosho- 
nes,  —  a  set  of  roving  outlaws,  who  held 
a  reign  of  terror  over  all  the  tribes  of  the 
northwestern  plains. 

Captain  Lewis  determined  to  meet  these 
folk  as  he  had  met  all  others.  He  held  a 


RECROSSING  THE  DIVIDE          135 

council  with  them,  smoked  the  pipe  of  peace, 
and  endeavored  to  explain  to  them  his  mis- 
sion. When  night  came,  whites  and  Indi- 
ans camped  together.  Lewis  knew  that  he 
must  be  on  his  guard,  and  had  some  of  his 
men  remain  awake  throughout  the  night ; 
but  in  the  early  dawn  the  Minnetarees, 
catching  the  sentry  unawares,  stole  the  guns 
of  the  party  and  tried  to  make  off  with  them. 
A  hand-to-hand  fight  followed.  One  of  the 
men,  in  struggling  with  an  Indian  and  en- 
deavoring to  wrest  a  stolen  gun  from  him, 
killed  him  by  a  knife-thrust.  The  savages 
then  attempted  to  drive  off  the  horses ;  but 
in  this  they  were  thwarted.  Being  hard 
pressed,  and  one  of  their  number  shot  by 
Captain  Lewis's  pistol,  they  were  forced  to 
retreat,  leaving  twelve  of  their  own  horses 
behind.  The  whites  were  the  gamers,  for 
they  took  away  four  of  the  captured  animals, 
while  losing  but  one  of  their  own.  The 
Indians  had  also  lost  a  gun,  shields,  bows 
and  arrows.  Most  of  this  stuff  was  burned ; 
but  about  the  neck  of  the  dead  warrior, 
whose  body  remained  upon  the  field,  Captain 


136  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

Lewis  left  a  medal,  "  so  that  the  Indians 
might  know  who  we  were."  The  Minne- 
tarees  never  forgot  or  forgave  this  meeting. 
For  long  years  afterward  they  nursed  the 
thought  of  revenge,  doing  what  they  could 
to  obstruct  settlement  of  the  country. 

This  encounter  made  it  necessary  to  stop 
further  exploration  of  Maria's  River,  and  to 
retreat  with  all  speed  toward  the  Missouri, 
before  the  Indians  could  recover,  gather  re- 
enforcements,  and  offer  battle  at  greater 
odds.  It  was  not  to  be  supposed  that  they 
would  pass  by  the  shedding  of  their  tribal 
blood  without  seeking  immediate  vengeance. 
The  explorers  had  a  fair  start,  however,  and 
after  hard  riding  reached  the  banks  of  the 
Missouri  just  in  time  to  meet  Sergeant  Ord- 
way's  party  descending  the  river  with  the 
canoes  and  baggage  that  had  been  recovered 
from  the  resting  place  on  the  Jefferson,  — 
a  fortunate  occurrence  indeed.  Reunited, 
the  two  parties  hurried  down  the  river  at  a 
great  rate,  the  rapid  current  aiding  the  oars- 
men, and  got  out  of  the  way  before  the  Min- 
netarees  appeared. 


KECROSSING  THE  DIVIDE          137 

On  August  7th,  after  a  day's  cruise  of 
eighty-three  miles,  they  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  Yellowstone,  where  they  found  a  note 
that  had  been  left  by  Captain  Clark,  saying 
that  he  would  await  them  a  few  miles  below. 
He  waited  for  several  days  ;  but  then,  fear- 
ing that  Lewis's  party  had  already  passed, 
he  moved  forward,  and  the  two  commands 
were  not  joined  until  the  12th. 

In  the  mean  time,  after  the  separation  at 
Traveler's  Eest  Creek,  Captain  Clark's 
party,  too,  had  found  a  new  pass  over  the 
Continental  Divide,  —  a  road  164  miles  in 
length,  suitable  for  wagon  travel.  July  8th 
they  came  to  the  spot  upon  Jefferson  River 
where  the  canoes  and  merchandise  had  been 
buried  the  summer  before.  The  boats  were 
raised  and  loaded,  and  Sergeant  Ordway  and 
his  men  proceeded  with  them  down  the  river, 
while  Captain  Clark's  party  set  out  over- 
land, with  the  horses,  to  the  Yellowstone. 
On  this  trip  Captain  Clark  had  an  efficient 
guide  in  Sacajawea,  the  "  Bird  Woman," 
who  brought  him  to  the  Yellowstone  on  the 
15th,  at  the  point  where  the  river  issues 


138  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

from  the  mountains  through  its  lower  canon. 
After  traveling  for  four  days  along  the 
banks,  they  halted  to  build  canoes,  in  which 
they  made  the  passage  to  the  Missouri,  a 
distance  of  eight  hundred  miles,  reaching 
the  confluence  on  August  3d.  Aside  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  Yellowstone  country 
which  was  acquired,  the  only  important 
event  of  the  journey  was  the  loss  of  all  the 
horses,  which  were  stolen  by  prowling  bands 
of  Indians.  This  was  a  serious  loss ;  for 
they  were  depending  upon  the  horses  for 
barter  with  the  Mandans,  in  order  to  pro- 
cure a  supply  of  corn  for  the  journey  to  St. 
Louis.  But  there  was  no  time  for  mourn- 
ing. The  men  went  into  camp  at  a  short 
distance  below  the  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone, 
where  they  occupied  themselves,  while  wait- 
ing for  Lewis's  party,  in  hunting  and  dress- 
ing skins,  which  they  meant  to  offer  to  the 
Mandans  in  exchange  for  needed  stores. 

While  they  were  thus  engaged,  on  the 
llth  they  hailed  a  canoe  passing  up  stream, 
that  contained  two  men  who  had  come  from 
the  Illinois  country  to  hunt  upon  the  Yel- 


RECROSSING  THE  DIVIDE          139 

lowstone.  These  were  the  first  whites  seen 
since  April  13,  1805,  a  period  of  sixteen 
months.  As  a  matter  of  course  Clark  was 
famished  for  news  from  the  United  States ; 
but  what  he  got  from  the  wanderers  was  not 
cheerful. 

"  These  two  men  [who  had  left  the  Illinois 
in  the  summer  of  1804]  had  met  the  boat 
which  we  had  dispatched  from  Fort  Man- 
dan,  on  board  of  which,  they  were  told,  was 
a  Ricara  chief  on  his  way  to  Washington ; 
and  also  another  party  of  Yankton  chiefs, 
accompanying  Mr.  Dorion  on  a  visit  of  the 
same  kind.  We  were  sorry  to  learn  that 
the  Mandans  and  Minnetarees  were  at  war 
with  the  Eicaras,  and  had  killed  two  of 
them.  The  Assiniboins  too  are  at  war  with 
the  Mandans.  They  have,  in  consequence, 
prohibited  the  Northwestern  Company  from 
trading  to  the  Missouri,  and  even  killed  two 
of  their  traders  near  Mouse  Eiver ;  they 
are  now  lying  in  wait  for  Mr.  McKenzie  of 
the  Northwestern  Company,  who  had  been 
for  a  long  time  among  the  Minnetarees. 
These  appearances  are  rather  unfavorable 


140  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

to  our  project  of  carrying  some  of  the  chiefs 
to  the  United  States ;  but  we  still  hope  that, 
by  effecting  a  peace  between  the  Mandans, 
Minnetarees,  and  Ricaras,  the  views  of  our 
government  may  be  accomplished." 

This  meant  that  the  solemn  treaties  of 
peace  concluded  at  Fort  Mandan  amongst 
the  several  Indian  tribes,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  expedition,  had  been  broken.  The 
news  was  displeasing,  but  probably  not 
wholly  unexpected. 

August  14th,  two  days  after  the  reunion 
of  the  two  parties,  they  came  again  to  the 
home  of  their  acquaintances,  the  Mandans 
and  the  Minnetarees.  They  showed  these 
people  every  consideration  ;  and  the  swivel 
gun,  which  could  not  be  used  on  the  small 
boats,  was  presented  to  old  Le  Borgne,  who 
bore  it  in  state  to  his  lodge,  thinking  his 
own  thoughts.  One  of  the  Mandan  chiefs 
joined  them  here  for  the  journey  down  the 
river. 

Then  occurred  another  brief  conference 
with  the  Ricaras,  with  a  renewal  of  the  old 
pledges  of  peace  and  good  will  toward  all 


RECROSSING  THE  DIVIDE          141 

men  —  excepting  the  Sioux.  Reckless  as 
they  were  in  making  promises,  they,  like  all 
their  neighbors,  weak  or  strong,  would  not 
commit  themselves  to  attempting  concilia- 
tion of  the  Sioux. 


CHAPTER  XII 

HOME 

AFTER  leaving  the  Ricara  villages,  the 
men  were  possessed  by  an  ardent  longing  to 
get  home ;  and  the  Missouri,  as  though  it 
had  learned  to  know  and  respect  and  love 
them,  and  could  appreciate  their  ardor,  lent 
them  its  best  aid.  Upon  the  swift  current, 
and  under  pleasant  skies,  the  boats  flew  on- 
ward. Seventy-five  or  eighty  miles  a  day 
was  a  common  achievement ;  but  even  that 
progress  did  not  keep  pace  with  the  speed 
of  their  desires.  There  was  nothing  more 
to  be  accomplished,  no  reason  for  lingering 
by  the  way ;  and  there  was  nothing  to  be 
guarded  against,  except  possible  trouble 
with  the  Tetons.  As  the  boats  passed 
through  their  country,  these  people  appeared 
in  large  numbers  upon  the  banks,  shouting 
invitations  to  land;  but  the  officers  felt 
safer  in  refusing  further  intercourse.  The 


HOME  143 

Tetons  were  obliged  to  content  themselves 
with  trotting  along  upon  the  shore,  keeping 
abreast  of  the  boats  as  well  as  they  were 
able,  crying  out  taunts  and  imprecations ; 
and  one,  more  zealous  in  his  passion,  went 
to  the  top  of  a  hill  and  struck  the  earth 
three  times  with  the  butt  of  his  gun,  —  the 
registration  of  a  mighty  oath  against  the 
whites,  long  since  abundantly  fulfilled. 

Occasionally  there  was  a  meeting  with  a 
trading  party  from  St.  Louis  or  elsewhere, 
with  brief  exchange  of  news  and  gossip ; 
but  they  were  growing  too  eager  for  loiter- 
ing. On  the  9th  of  September  they  passed 
the  mouth  of  the  Platte  ;  and  on  the  12th 
they  met  one  of  their  own  men  who  had 
been  sent  back  with  the  batteau  from  Fort 
Mandan,  in  April,  1805.  This  man  was 
now  returning  to  the  Ricaras,  with  a  mes- 
sage from  President  Jefferson,  and  an  inde- 
pendent mission  to  instruct  the  Ricaras  in 
methods  of  agriculture.  A  few  days  later 
they  met  with  one  Captain  McClellan,  an 
old  acquaintance  of  Captain  Clark,  who  told 
them  that  the  people  of  the  United  States 


144  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

had  generally  given  them  up  for  lost,  though 
the  President  still  entertained  hopes  of 
their  return. 

"  September  20th.  ...  As  we  moved 
along  rapidly  we  saw  on  the  banks  some 
cows  feeding,  and  the  whole  party  almost 
involuntarily  raised  a  shout  of  joy  at  seeing 
this  image  of  civilization  and  domestic  life. 
Soon  after  we  reached  the  little  French  vil- 
lage of  La  Charette,  which  we  saluted  with 
a  discharge  of  four  guns  and  three  hearty 
cheers.  We  landed,  and  were  received  with 
kindness  by  the  inhabitants.  .  .  .  They 
were  all  equally  surprised  and  pleased  at 
our  arrival,  for  they  had  long  since  aban- 
doned all  hopes  of  ever  seeing  us  return." 

The  next  day  they  came  to  the  village  of 
St.  Charles ;  and  on  the  22d  they  stopped 
at  a  cantonment  of  United  States  soldiery, 
three  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri, 
where  they  passed  the  day.  The  concluding 
paragraphs  of  the  journals  must  be  quoted 
literally  from  Captain  Clark :  — 

"  September  23rd.  Took  an  early  brack- 
fast  with  Colo  Hunt  and  set  out,  descended 


HOME  145 

to  the  Mississippi  and  down  that  river  to 
St.  Louis  at  which  place  we  arived  about 
12  o'Clock.  We  suffered  the  party  to  fire 
off  their  pieces  as  a  Salute  to  the  Town.  We 
were  met  by  all  the  village  and  received  a 
harty  welcom  from  its  inhabitants  &c  here 
I  found  my  old  acquaintance  Maj  W. 
Christy  who  had  settled  in  this  town  in  a 
public  line  as  a  Tavern  Keeper.  He  fur- 
nished us  with  storeroom  for  our  baggage 
and  we  accepted  of  the  invitation  of  Mr. 
Peter  Choteau  and  took  a  room  in  his 
house.  We  payed  a  friendly  visit  to  Mr. 
Auguste  Choteau  and  some  of  our  old 
friends  this  evening.  As  the  post  had  de- 
parted from  St.  Louis  Capt.  Lewis  wrote  a 
note  to  Mr.  Hay  in  Kahoka  to  detain  the 
post  at  that  place  until  12  tomorrow  which 
was  rather  later  than  his  usual  time  of  leave- 
ing  it. 

"Wednesday  24th  of  September,  1806. 
I  sleped  but  little  last  night  however  we 
rose  early  and  commenced  wrighting  our  let- 
ters Capt.  Lewis  wrote  one  to  the  presidend 
and  I  wrote  Gov.  Harrison  and  my  friends 


146  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

in  Kentucky  and  sent  off  George  Drewyer 
with  those  letters  to  Kohoka  &  delivered 
them  to  Mr.  Hays  &e.  We  dined  with  Mr. 
Chotoux  to  day  and  after  dinner  went  to  a 
store  and  purchased  some  clothes,  which  we 
gave  to  a  taylor  and  derected  to  be  made. 
Capt.  Lewis  in  opening  his  trunk  found  all 
his  papers  wet  and  some  seeds  spoiled. 

"  Thursday  25th  of  Septr.  1806.  had  aU 
our  skins  &c  suned  and  stored  away  in  a 
storeroom  of  Mr.  Caddy  Choteau,  payed 
some  visits  of  form,  to  the  gentlemen  of  St. 
Louis,  in  the  evening  a  dinner  &  Ball. 

"Friday  26th  of  Septr.  1806.  a  fine 
morning  we  commenced  wrighting,  &c." 

That  is  the  last  word  in  the  chronicles  of 
the  expedition,  —  modest,  unassuming,  mat- 
ter-of-fact —  the  word  of  one  who  had  done 
a  difficult  thing  thoroughly  and  well,  and 
who  was  at  the  end,  as  he  had  been  through- 
out, larger  than  the  mere  circumstances  of 
his  labor.  His  companion  was  of  the  same 
stalwart  stuff.  It  is  hard  to  choose  between 
them  in  any  essential  detail  of  manhood.  Nor 
were  the  officers  much  exalted  in  temper 


HOME  147 

above  the  men  of  their  command.  When  we 
are  celebrating  the  heroes  of  our  national 
life,  every  name  upon  the  roster  of  the 
Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition  deserves  to  be 
remembered. 

In  this  brief  narrative,  we  have  just 
touched  the  hilltops  of  the  adventures  of  the 
expedition.  Much  of  importance  has  been 
suggested  indirectly  ;  much  has  been  passed 
by  altogether.  Each  day's  work  was  full  of 
value  and  had  a  lasting  significance. 

One  thing  remains  to  be  said.  We  must 
not  forget  that  the  undertaking  was  not 
primarily  one  of  adventure;  it  was  an  ex- 
ploration, in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word. 
It  was  not  the  mere  fact  of  getting  across 
the  continent  and  back  that  gave  the  work 
its  character,  but  the  observations  that  were 
made  by  the  way.  A  book  of  this  size 
would  not  contain  a  bare  catalogue  of  the 
deeds  and  discoveries  of  those  twenty-eight 
months  ;  nor  could  any  number  of  volumes 
do  full  justice  to  their  importance.  Who- 
ever reads  the  journals,  from  whatever  point 


148  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

of  view,  is  amazed  by  what  they  reveal. 
Geographers,  ethnologists,  botanists,  geolo- 
gists, Indian  traders,  and  men  of  affairs,  all 
are  of  one  mind  upon  this  point.  We  must 
wait  long  before  we  find  the  work  of  Lewis 
and  Clark  equaled. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

AFTER    LIFE 

IT  would  be  a  pleasant  labor,  and  one  well 
worth  the  pains,  to  record  the  story  of  the 
later  years  of  every  one  of  those  valiant 
souls,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest.  But 
that  may  not  be  done  here.  The  best  hom- 
age that  can  be  rendered  to  the  subordinates 
is  to  speak  of  their  common  motive :  simple- 
hearted,  unselfish  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  the  nation,  unstained  by  ulterior  hope  of 
private  gain.  A  bill  was  passed  by  Congress 
in  1807,  granting  to  the  non-commissioned 
officers  and  privates,  according  to  rank,  a 
sum  of  money  equal  to  double  pay  for  the 
period  of  service,  and,  in  addition,  300  acres 
of  land  from  the  public  domain.  But  no- 
thing beyond  ordinary  pay  had  been  defi- 
nitely pledged  in  advance.  Clearly  it  was 
not  the  expectation  of  material  reward  which 
sustained  them. 


150  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

The  bill  passed  by  Congress  included  also 
a  grant  of  1500  acres  of  land  to  Captain 
Lewis,  and  of  1000  acres  to  Captain  Clark. 
It  is  upon  record  that  Lewis,  in  the  spirit 
which  had  regulated  all  of  his  relations  with 
Clark,  objected  to  this  discrimination  in  his 
favor. 

In  March,  1804,  before  the  expedition 
set  out,  the  newly  acquired  Louisiana  Terri- 
tory was  divided  by  Congress,  the  dividing 
line  being  the  33d  parallel.  The  southern 
portion  was  named  the  District  of  New 
Orleans,  and  the  northern,  the  District  of 
Louisiana ;  this  name  being  changed,  a  year 
later,  to  Louisiana  Territory. 

On  March  3d,  1807,  Meriwether  Lewis 
was  made  governor  of  this  territory,  with 
headquarters  at  the  village  of  St.  Louis ; 
and  this  office  he  held  until  he  died,  October 
11,  1809,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  years. 

Although  his  service  in  this  position  was 
so  untimely  short,  he  did  much  toward  lay- 
ing a  firm  foundation  for  the  institutions  of 
lawful  and  orderly  life.  According  to  Mr. 
Jefferson,  "  he  found  the  territory  distracted 


AFTER  LIFE  151 

by  feuds  and  contentions  among  the  officers 
of  the  government,  and  the  people  them- 
selves divided  by  these  into  factions  and 
parties.  He  determined  at  once  to  take  no 
side  with  either,  but  to  use  every  endeavor 
to  conciliate  and  harmonize  them.  The  even- 
handed  justice  he  administered  to  all  soon 
established  a  respect  for  his  person  and 
authority,  and  perseverance  and  time  wore 
down  animosities,  and  reunited  the  citizens 
again  into  one  family." 

In  the  newly  organized  society,  events 
rapidly  took  form.  Governor  Lewis,  with 
two  others  (judges  of  the  court),  constituted 
the  territorial  legislature,  which  concerned 
itself  at  once  with  matters  of  development, 
—  providing  for  the  establishment  of  towns, 
laying  out  roads,  etc.  In  1808  the  laws  of 
Louisiana  Territory  were  collected  and  pub- 
lished, under  the  supervision  of  the  legisla- 
ture. This  was  the  first  book  printed  in 
St.  Louis.  A  post-office  was  established  also 
in  1808,  and  soon  afterward  the  first  news- 
paper appeared.  From  a  mere  frontier 
trading  settlement,  whose  conduct  was  regu- 


152  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

lated  by  untamed  impulses,  St.  Louis  was 
being  put  in  the  way  of  its  present  great- 
ness. 

Aside  from  these  purely  administrative 
duties,  the  governor  was  further  occupied  in 
endeavoring  to  secure  permanent  peace  with 
the  Indians,  and  to  prepare  them  for  receiv- 
ing the  advantages  of  civilized  life.  This 
was  his  largest  thought,  growing  naturally  out 
of  all  that  he  had  seen  and  done  in  the  years 
preceding ;  and  in  it  he  was  supported  and 
inspired  by  continued  association  with  Cap- 
tain Clark,  who  had  been  appointed  Indian 
agent  for  the  territory.  He  had  plenty  to 
do  ;  and  in  such  intervals  as  could  be  found, 
he  was  preparing  for  publication  the  history 
of  his  travels. 

The  manner  of  his  death  is  not  exactly 
known.  Although  several  writers  have  given 
their  best  efforts  to  erasing  what  they  seem 
to  consider  a  blot  upon  his  reputation,  the 
weight  of  opinion  appears  to  sustain  Mr. 
Jefferson's  statement  that  he  committed  sui- 
cide while  affected  by  hypochondria.  Mr. 
Jefferson  wrote  in  his  memoir :  — 


AFTER  LIFE  153 

u  Governor  Lewis  had  from  early  life  been 
subject  to  hypochondriac  affections.  It  was 
a  constitutional  disposition  in  all  the  nearer 
branches  of  the  family  of  his  name,  and  was 
more  immediately  inherited  by  him  from  his 
father.  They  had  not,  however,  been  so 
strong  as  to  give  uneasiness  to  his  family. 
While  he  lived  with  me  in  Washington  I 
observed  at  times  sensible  depressions  of 
mind  ;  but,  knowing  their  constitutional 
source,  I  estimated  their  course  by  what  I 
had  seen  in  the  family.  During  his  Western 
expedition,  the  constant  exertion  which  that 
required  of  all  the  faculties  of  body  and 
mind  suspended  these  distressing  affections ; 
but  after  his  establishment  at  St.  Louis  in 
sedentary  occupations,  they  returned  to  him 
with  redoubled  vigor  and  began  seriously  to 
alarm  his  friends.  He  was  in  a  paroxysm 
of  one  of  these  when  his  affairs  rendered  it 
necessary  for  him  to  go  to  Washington." 

He  proceeded  upon  this  journey,  and  was 
crossing  through  Tennessee  when  death  over- 
took him,  at  the  cabin  of  a  backwoodsman 
where  he  had  stopped  for  the  night.  Some 


154  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

of  the  circumstances  point  to  murder,  others 
to  suicide  ;  the  truth  is  conjectural.  What 
does  it  matter,  after  all  ?  He  had  lived 
largely ;  had  done  a  man's  work  ;  he  has  a 
noble  place  in  history. 

A  better  fortune  was  in  store  for  Captain 
Clark.  He  was  destined  for  long  and  hon- 
orable service  in  public  life,  and  a  fair  old 
age. 

On  the  12th  of  March,  1807,  a  few  days 
following  Captain  Lewis's  appointment  as 
governor  of  Louisiana  Territory,  Captain 
Clark  was  commissioned  by  President  Jef- 
ferson as  brigadier-general  of  the  territorial 
militia,  and  as  Indian  agent.  Dr.  Coues 
says  in  his  excellent  biographical  sketch  that 
"  in  those  days  this  title  was  not  synonymous 
with  c  thief,'  and  the  position  was  one  of 
honor,  not  to  be  sought  or  used  for  dishonest 
purposes."  Then  William  Clark  was  the 
man  for  the  place.  Throughout  his  public 
life  there  is  no  stain  of  any  sort  upon  his 
name.  With  his  strong,  decisive,  straight- 
forward character,  which  would  not  suffer 
him  to  yield  a  jot  in  his  ideas  of  right  and 


AFTER  LIFE  155 

wrong,  he  must  have  excited  jealousies  and 
made  some  enemies ;  but  none  of  these  had 
the  hardihood  to  speak  against  his  integrity. 
His  best  work  was  accomplished  as  Indian 
agent.  In  that  position  he  was  in  fact  and 
in  name  the  foster-father  of  all  the  tribes 
who  lived  in  the  territory  he  had  helped  to 
explore.  It  devolved  upon  him  to  acquaint 
the  Indians  with  the  nature  and  purposes 
of  our  government,  and  to  bring  them  into 
obedience  to  its  laws.  More  than  this,  he 
had  a  large  task  before  him  in  endeavoring 
to  reconcile  the  traditional  enmities  of  the 
tribes  one  against  another.  He  succeeded 
well.  He  got  the  confidence  of  the  natives, 
and  kept  it ;  from  fearing  his  power,  most 
of  them  came  to  revere  the  man.  When  all 
is  said  of  the  Indians,  —  of  their  savage 
craft,  their  obliquity  of  moral  vision,  their 
unsparing  cruelty,  and  their  utter  remissness 
in  most  matters  of  behavior,  the  fact  remains 
that  they  know  how  to  appreciate  candor 
and  honor,  and  will  respond  to  it  as  well  as 
they  are  able.  They  are  slow  to  believe  in 
wordy  protestations :  they  must  have  signs 


156  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

more  tangible.  They  will  not  trust  all  men 
of  white  complexion  merely  because  they 
have  found  one  trustworthy ;  each  man  must 
prove  himself  and  stand  for  himself.  Wil- 
liam Clark  gave  them  a  rare  exhibition  of  up- 
right, downright  manliness,  and  they  learned 
to  respect  and  love  him.  He  was  soon  cele- 
brated from  St.  Louis  to  the  Pacific,  and  was 
called  by  the  name  "  Red-Head."  To  this 
day,  old  men  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  tribes 
speak  of  him  with  fondness,  saying  that  our 
government  has  never  shown  another  like 
him. 

He  was  a  man  of  iron ;  his  was  an  iron 
rule.  In  that  time,  Indian  affairs  were  com- 
paratively free  from  the  modern  bureaucratic 
control ;  the  agent  devised  and  followed  his 
own  plans,  unhampered  by  jealous  superiors. 
It  has  been  said  that  Clark's  office  was  that 
of  an  autocrat,  a  condition  too  dangerous 
to  be  generally  tolerated.  Clark  was  indeed 
an  exception.  The  most  absolute  power 
could  be  intrusted  to  him  with  implicit  con- 
fidence that  it  would  not  be  abused.  The 
Indians  themselves,  who  were  the  most  di- 


AFTER  LIFE  157 

rectly  concerned,  did  not  rebel  against  his 
unbending  authority.  If  he  was  stern,  ex- 
acting the  utmost,  and  holding  them  to  a 
strict  accountability  for  violations  of  law, 
they  knew  that  his  least  word  of  promise 
was  certain  of  fulfillment.  They  did  not  find 
his  rule  too  onerous  under  those  conditions. 
While  he  held  sway,  the  Western  Indian 
country  was  in  an  unequaled  state  of  order 
and  decency. 

Not  the  least  of  our  debts  to  Captain 
Clark  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  was  he  who 
brought  the  journals  of  the  great  expedition 
to  public  view.  Captain  Lewis  had  not  been 
able  to  finish  this  work  before  his  death; 
most  of  the  details  of  arrangement  for  pub- 
lication fell  to  his  surviving  companion, 
with  the  admirable  editorial  supervision  of 
Nicholas  Biddle.  It  is  often  regretted  that 
editorial  revision  of  the  manuscripts  was  con- 
sidered necessary ;  for  what  was  thus  gained 
sometimes  in  clearness  and  brevity  of  state- 
ment was  more  than  lost  in  delicious  naivete. 
Mr.  Biddle  did  his  part  thoroughly,  sympa- 
thetically ;  and  it  was  he  who  succeeded  in 


158  LEWIS  AND  CLARK 

finding  a  publisher,  —  a  matter  hard  to  ac- 
complish in  that  time,  troubled  as  it  was 
with  war  and  with  political  and  commercial 
uncertainty.  The  authentic  history  did  not 
appear  until  the  year  1814. 

Meanwhile,  Captain  Clark  had  passed  to 
fresh  honors.  Following  the  death  of  Gov- 
ernor Lewis,  Benjamin  Howard  was  ap- 
pointed as  his  successor.  In  1812  the  name 
of  the  territory  was  changed  to  Missouri ; 
and  in  1813  Captain  Clark  was  appointed  by 
President  Madison  as  its  governor.  After 
being  reappointed  by  Madison  in  1816  and 
1817,  and  by  Monroe  in  1820,  he  surren- 
dered his  office  upon  the  admission  of  Mis- 
souri to  statehood,  when  a  governor  was 
elected  by  vote  of  the  people.  In  1822  he 
was  named  by  President  Monroe  to  be  Su- 
perintendent of  Indian  Affairs,  and  this  post 
he  held  for  sixteen  years  thereafter,  until  his 
death. 

He  died  as  a  man  of  his  make  would  wish 
to  die.  He  was  sixty-eight  years  of  age,  but 
still  in  harness  and  able  to  do  his  work.  He 
passed  quietly  away  at  the  home  of  his  eldest 


AFTER  LIFE  159 

SOD,  Meriwether  Lewis  Clark,  in  St.  Louis, 
on  the  first  day  of  September,  1838. 

And  they  took  of  the  fruit  of  the  land  in 
their  hands,  and  brought  it  down  unto  us, 
and  brought  us  word  again,  and  said,  It  is 
a  good  land  which  the  Lord  our  God  doth 
give  us. 


Electrotyped  and  printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  d^  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.  A. 


